A Tale of Blood and Steel (WH40K SI)
by Illuviar
Summary: One day you awake in a dingy, dark cell. The next thing you know, you're being bound to the Emperor as a Sanctified Psyker and send to school, so you can learn how to die in an useful way for the Empire. Once you've survived all that, you find yourself bound for the planet Kronus, where you're to meet the Inquisitor for whom you're supposed to work and everything goes to hell...
1. Prologue, Chapter 1 Parts 1-3

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Warhammer 40K games, books or movies. They belong to their creators and/or copyright owners. I make no money from this story. It is not for sale or rent.**

 **AN: This part was betaed by Seylerius on the sufficient velocity forums. Thank you very much for the time and effort you put in cleaning up this story!**

 **A Tale of Blood and Steel**

 **Prologue: Monsters in the dark**

 **=ATBS=**

"Ah, you're awake. Good, good. Just in time." A voice, swinging from a mouth watering contralto to a pleasant bass whispered in my ear. It sent shivers of pleasure and revulsion down my spine, yet it froze the blood in my veins.

"He's just a little terrified human." A deep, chilling voice rumbled from all around me. It felt like blood-thirst, rage and war. It made my blood race like a battle-hymn. My heart thundered with the need to rip and tear, to bathe myself in the blood of my enemies.

I opened my eyes and immediately wanted to claw them out of my skull, yet I was unable to move, to look away.

The landscape… it was hard, no impossible to describe.

There were fleshly, half-rotted mouths on the floor/ceiling. Men, women and children, who were little more than slabs of brutalized flesh and offal were being tortured in unspeakable ways. Their screams of agony/ecstasy were echoing in the purple, pulsating void all around us. Directions were shifting in a way that simply made no sense, up and right left and down, ! #%!*HRF! $%!...

"What did you do, bird brain?" Another male spoke. The voice sounded like decay, like the moans of the deadthly sick.

"This wasn't according to plan." Another voice. Inhuman. Wise. Amused. _Interested._ It constantly changed in tone and timbre, it held the promise of things to come.

"You think?" This was different. The voice made my very soul ring with confidence I've never known. It held calm radiance, filing my heart with hope.

"How amusing, a shard of the Corpse Emperor..." The Male/Female _thing_ laughed from behind me, the very substance of the sound making me flush with desire.

"He's one of mine." The _bright_ voice spoke, disregarding the interruption.

"Yours? No." A flutter of feathers. Many birdlike eyes formed in the twisting madness around me and staring into my soul.

"Then he isn't one of yours either." The light sounded amused.

" _Not yet."_ The voice was all feminine, soothing, seductive, arousing. It's sheer _presence_ made me scream as my mind was bombarded with visions of carnal pleasures that no sane man would ever dream of in his deepest nightmares.

"Don't break it yet." The constantly changing voice admonished, while the thousand eyes continued to stare into me.

"Wrong! This' exactly by da plan!" A large, very green face suddenly appeared in front of me and grinned.

Those were some huge and reeealy sharp teeth.

"That just what yer get!" The green being winked at me.

"You." The flutter of feathers was getting irritated, though even more _interested._

"We is bord!" Another even more _green_ face simply materialized next to the first. "Teh thousand yers da same staf!" It grumbled.

The twisting madness around the faces started turning green.

"You want _ChANgE…"_ The ever changing voice had a distinct tone this time. It was _amused. Satisfied. Curious._

"Fun! We wana FUN!" The two green monstrosities roared as one. "Da thirteenth was borin!"

Something muttered a _cur!# $%! #(! #…_ that made my mind hurt.

"We wanna new game!" The faces chanted again and again.

"What do you expect just an ordinary man from wherever you got him to do?" The only voice I could relate to spoke in a long suffered tone.

"Dat… Unexpected..."

"His flesh is weak. His will is brittle." I could hear the echo of a battle in the voice.

" _I can fix that..."_ The sound of tongue wetting lips followed the seductive whisepr. The promise of… I shuddered in more pleasure than a human should be able to ever feel.

"He's still a human. And… alive..." There was a wonder as warm light brushed over me.

The thousand eye starring at me crinkled, smiling.

"Yess..." The voice was all sex and lust..." _Amus_ _e_ _ment_ rolled from her/him/it. "What say you, little morsel? Ready to play?"

"Don't answer!" The light became harsh, searing the 'yes' off my tongue.

"Games afoot." The first green face beamed at me. "WAAAAGH!" His joyful scream washed over me.

Reality itself shifted, snapping into focus. My mind suddenly cleared, allowing me to comprehend _where_ exactly I was. If my body wasn't frozen I would have voided my bowels then and there, before screaming like a little girl and fainting.

None of that was allowed.

" _We have a proposition for you..."_ The sensual voice slid over my body like a lover's caress, making me shudder in delight.

"Choose a boon and be on its way..." That was more akin to the roar of chainsaws than a voice.

 **=ATBS=**

I awoke with a startled gasp and looked around. Small, stuffy room; pitch dark. I could hear the soft whine of a servo-skull. It felt familiar, reassuring. Letting a sigh of relief, I closed my eyes and fell back in the bed.

It was that dream again, though there were a few more details this time. I shuddered as a vivid recollection ran through my mind. Even whispering a word about what I often dream of would be enough to see me summarily executed if I was lucky. I should know; I've been training to be an inquisitor for what felt forever.

That was mostly true too. My first memories were awakening in a tiny, empty cell in what I later found out to be one of the Holy Black Ships. Let me tell you, the journey to the Most Holy Terra was rather unpleasant, especially when I simply couldn't remember who I was or how I got there.

Then I found out that I didn't know the meaning of the word "unpleasant", or what agony was for that matter. Not until I found myself securely strapped to a gurney, while a robed abomination that was more machine than man shoved a piece of rubber in my mouth, ordering me to bite down. Then he was out and something shifted around me, letting me get a good look of the place where I woke up. I had mere moments to stare in horror at the dozens of very sharp, very long needles pointed all over me, before the torture implements descended and all I knew was pain…

I know I lost consciousness soon thereafter as the agony became too much for my mind to bear.

That was also the first time I had the bloody nightmare.

When I regained consciousness I was informed of what was expected of me. I had to train my cursed powers and use them in the name of the God-Emperor of Mankind.

Or I could get shot then and there if I was lucky.

I shook my head at the memory.

It sucked; there was nothing else to say about it. The fucking pain was bad enough. The little fact that it heralded me being able to touch what was literally Hell for the first time I could remember was so much worse… I shuddered. The mere thought chased off what little vestiges of sleep I had left.

I threw the blanket away and stood up.

"Light up." I ordered. The servo-skull obeyed the voice command. A quiet click came from it. A subdued whoosh followed and the crown-shaped basked it wore like a hat was filled with flickering orange flames. I took a deep breath of the sweet incense. The simple familiarity of the smell made me feel a bit better.

The dancing flames illuminated my home for the past half decade since my soul was bound to the Emperor and I was sent back to the schola. My meager possessions were carefully arranged around the room. That was the Stormtrooper Sergeant's fault. He who enforced discipline and made sure that we all were presentable all the time, because he wouldn't tolerate anything less.

We were on the third such fella ever since I was volunteered for this particular school. The last two suffered rather gruesome and inventive accidents after pissing off a few of my fellow students too much. That bit of fun was swiftly followed by Inquisitorial type of justice. It was ever more bloody, long lasting and gruesome than what my shcola mates could ever think about. The first accident actually made the smarter of us think.

It became obvious why most of our cadre weren't Psykers. They were a test of a sort to see how would we act towards them when pushed. When someone went overboard, well… At least we got break from classes on the next day and a bit of free entertainment.

That also served as additional motivation to study hard and learn how to safeguard our thoughts better. After all, an open mind was like a fortress with its gates opened and sign in orbit inviting various unpleasant types, as Master Hughes used to say - before he got eaten by a daemon in class, the poor sod.

Fortunately I missed that bit of excitement, because anyone in the same wing of the building had to go very strict screening by the Ordo Malleus folks who were here to teach us, while doing some R&R.

A whole third of the people in there were never seen again, though soon we had an upswing in servitors on campus. Totally unrelated.

I mean it. When an honest, Emperor-blessed Inquisitor says so, it becomes a divine truth, one that no one sane is going to nay-say.

I smiled at the good times I remembered and returned my attention to the present. What little I possessed was packed up in a single cargo container, which lay open in the middle of the room. Mostly it held a few changes of clothes, courtesy of the small stipend the students without any other source of income received for expenses. They served as an additional packaging for the most expensive thing I owned - a couple of heavy, leather bound books covered with blessed seals. They contained various litanies and blessings which should protect a careful Psyker when practicing his warp-craft or facing such a phenomena.

Besides that, all I had was my issued gear, which didn't amount to much, because of who I was – a no one, who lacked a family or any other support structure to help pave my way. So instead of something more functional, I had to relegate myself to a standard issue carapace armor, a Laspistol and an old, scarred chainsword.

Then there were the most important things that, while technically "mine", were actually owned by the Holy Inquisition. Those were my credentials - papers that would let me board a Warp capable transport to Kronus, in the Zeus system, Lithesh sector – and the small blessed Sigil signifying that I was working for an Inquisitor… One I haven't yet met, though that wasn't really a surprise. Usually the neonates like myself - once we were deemed sufficiently trained that we could be of some minor use before we got ourselves killed - were sent to meet the Inquisitor under whom we were supposed to apprentice and really start learning the ropes.

I glanced at the dataslate containing my orders and stilled as a shiver ran up my spine. For some reason every time I thought about Kronus I felt unease. My few attempts to divine that was all about were unsuccessful, giving me only vague portents of danger. That was decidedly unhelpful. I would be meeting my master while he was at work over there, something that virtually guaranteed danger.

Shaking my head at the worry, I tore my sight from the cargo crate and checked up the time. It was four in the morning, about a hour or so before I should have gotten up to ensure my arrival at the spaceport would be in time. That left me to check up if everything was packed at my leisure, seal the crate and take a shower. Once that was done, I got into one of my two pair of decent clothes, strapped the armor on and pocketed my credentials and orders. Knowing my school mates, leaving something really valuable in my rooms unattended wasn't a smart thing to do on the day I was to finally leave this place.

It was time to properly adjust the caff to blood content in my veins.

 **=ATBS=**

 **Chapter 1: Welcome to the Inquisition**

 **=ATBS=**

 **Part 1**

 **Munitorum Warp Transport "Blood of Saints"**

 **En route to Kronus**

 **Zeus System**

 **Lathesh Sector**

Two weeks in Warp transit. It frayed my nerves and shook my mind. The source of my power, so close, so enticing… I had to spent all my time on board in prayer, reciting litanies while going over the mental exercise to center myself.

This was much worse than my only other Warp travel after my binding, which brought me to the schola. During that little excursion, the Empyrean was very calm in contrast to the turbulent travel I had to endure this time around. By the time we emerged at the edge of the system, the Gellar fields were straining and the unintelligible whispers I'd been hearing in the last days of our transits were getting more and more vocal.

So it's not a surprise that I felt a huge surge of relief when we were back in normal space.

I should have known better then, though at the time I was more interested in catching up with some sorely missing sleep to think how the universe planned to screw me over.

Once I was awake and managed to drag myself to the mess hall, I was still downing my first cup of steaming Caff, when a Naval Armsman bursted in.

"Sir, the Captain requests your presence at the bridge." The Sergeant gave me a proper salute. "At your earliest convenience."

In turn I rewarded him with a bleary-eyed glance that would have made a plague zombie proud and finished my cup. I didn't need to touch the Warp to feel the fear oozing from him. My status as a very new, very green Inquisitorial agent might have had something to do with that, though personally I think it was a more mundane reason.

A symbol on my coat designated me as a Psyker so everyone and their uncle should know who to shoot in case of Warp shenanigans. When you took those two things into account, you can guess why I was left alone during the transit… though coincidentally there was a heavily armed detachment of Naval Armsmen stationed near my chambers.

"That was the Navy-speak for 'right fucking now', right?" I groaned and looked forlornly at the kitchens where the cooks were busy preparing lunch. Nah, appearing in front of the ship's Master with a cup of Caff, unless it was for him, won't fly.

As far as someone working for the Inquisition, I was near the bottom of the food chain and currently had no real authority of my own… Something that Captain Linox was well aware of. He's been carting passengers such as me for a long, long time. Now that the caffeine was kicking in and my brain was starting to work properly, I had to stop myself from groaning and tarnishing my nonexistent reputation. The Captain wasn't calling me so I could watch us approaching the planet from the bridge. I wasn't important enough to warrant such a privilege. Someone of my station would need to be a scion of a rather powerful noble dynasty, famous military family or something like that to earn a visit by the Ship Master.

I stood up, straightened up my clothes and waved at the Sergeant.

"By all means. Lead the way. I haven't had the honor of visiting the bridge."

The NCO looked indecisive for a moment. He was obviously reluctant to let me walk behind him.

I gave him a flat look and walked next to him.

"I have no real idea where's the bridge without Scrying for the place. That's something both of us would rather avoid I think."

The casual mention of Warp-craft made him pale. His hands crossed in the warding sign of the Aquila.

"Let's not keep the Captain waiting." I walked towards the entrance I came from.

"Ah, sir. This way." The Sergeant cleared his throat and pointed at the door in the far end of the mess hall.

My mood was already in a free fall when we reached the bridge. There were a lot of naval rats doing their job, and a few cog-heads whistling in Binary and waving smoking incense with their mecha-tendrils.

Most notable and concerning were the three people looking at a holo-projection of the Zeus system.

The one in the middle was the most physically imposing, towering a head taller than the rest. He wore a purple trench coat with ridiculous parade pauldrons on the shoulders. Bald head with visible implants and data jacks was all I could see from this angle.

To his left stood a short woman in a reasonably plain uniform, which fit her like a glove. I admit, I stared at her curves for a few moments before my eyes snapped to the third person. Even with my Warp-sense shut as I've kept it ever since the journey started, I could feel the power of the man. If I had to guess, he was our navigator.

The woman was probably either the CO or the commander of the Naval Armsmen. That didn't bode well.

"Agent Veil, you join us at last." The Navigator's voice boomed.

I gave him a respectful bow. It never hurt to be polite to a potentially more powerful Psyker, not to mention one who was undoubtedly much more experienced than me.

"We have a problem." The captain's gruff voice made me redirect my attention. The man had turned towards me, revealing a burnt face that was mostly bionics.

"How can I be of assistance, sir?" I asked politely.

"We've had some communication problems ever since transiting to real space. They were fixed a hour ago and we got a sit rep." The woman, turned around, revealing a weathered face that once had held stunning beauty. Now it was a mess of scars which she wore proudly.

"It's rather interesting I take it?"

"Kronus is a mess. Besides the damn Tau, we've got Orks and Eldar down there. They've been giving hell to the Imperial Guard." The woman smiled thinly. "The 'good' news is that we've got an Adeptus Astrates Strike Cruiser in orbit, it emerged from behind the planet a few minutes ago."

"That's not as good as it should sound?" I tried.

"We've also have conflicting reports stating that there have been at least two engagements between elements of the Guard and the Blood Ravens, who own the cruiser."

"Well, fuck." My false good cheer died a sudden and violent death.

"Do you know something about this, spirited situation?" The Captain made a grimace, which might have been a smile. It was impossible to tell.

"All I know is that I'm supposed to meet with Inquisitor Requista on my arrival planet side." I shrugged.

Captain Linox gave me his version of disappointed look.

"We've also received instructions to ferry you to Victory Bay as soon as practical. "We received an encoded message for you too." The woman, who lacked a name tag on her uniform fave me a dataslate.

"I see. Have arrangements for my departure been made?"

"Your luggage should already be in the shuttle. You're leaving in an hour." The woman stated blandly.

"I see. Thank you, ma'am. Captain Linox, it's been a pleasure." I gave them a proper bow and saw myself out.

 **=ATBS=**

Thirty minutes later, I was strapped into the back of an ancient shuttle, which took off a couple of minutes after I went on board. Whoever had requested my presence, had obviously lit up a fire under the Captain's command throne. Not good at all.

At least I was alone in the small passenger compartment, which let me free to see the message. I used my Sigil - which was actually an artifact full with codes and ciphers - to decode the data. My eyes skimmed over the tittles of Inquisitor Jonas Requista, Ordo Xenos until I reached the important part.

It was succinct and to the point. The Blood Ravens and the Imperial Guard had conflicting orders, something that might prove 'troublesome'. I was to go visit Governor-General Alexander and fix the mess before it got out of hand, while my Master and his retinue were busy investigating heretic activity on the Deimos Peninsula. They were expected to be out of contact for some time.

Obviously that message had been recorded before the shit hit the fan and the Emperor's finest started shooting each other.

The only bright thing in sight was the last few sentences of the message. They were in High Gothic and meant that in this instance I was to act in the name of the Lord Inquisitor, something that at least in theory gave me a bit of power.

Well, fuck me. If the Imperial Guard and the Space Marines were shooting at each other, my new found authority was unlikely to impress them while Requista and company were out of contact.

Damn it all to the Warp, I was fresh out of the Schola! I wasn't supposed to be dealing with Generals and Astrates!

I was so fucked...

 **=ATBS=**

 **Part 2**

 **Space Port**

 **Victory Bay**

 **Kronus**

Once I was able to stop bemoaning my fuck all luck and likely immediate demise, I had a few hours to start scheming. Without an actual Inquisitor around who could simply order this whole fucking mess stopped I would need to get creative. Considering that I really knew very little about the situation - besides what amounted to rumors - meant that I needed some facts and to talk with the General. Persuading him to stop trying to force the IG on Kronus in mass suicide by Astrates would be a good first step after that.

If that didn't work, I would be in a bind. Technically I _might_ be in my rights to shoot him then, though that wouldn't be a course of action that would be survivable.

For some arcane reason I was quite taken with my continued state of living, so that was flat out.

Our atmospheric entry and landing went without a hitch and soon enough the ramp opened, revealing a brightly lit landing pad. I looked around. The place was rather busy, but it paled in comparison with the port at Omnicron V – the location of my shcola and the only place I could call home until I was promptly kicked out into the outright terrifying world that was this millennium.

There were a lot of dockworker, heavy machinery, the inevitable cog-heads and soldiers milling around either doing their work or trying to skive off a few minutes of rest. A squad of the latter waited leaning on a chimera next to the steps leading down from the landing pad below me. Obviously they were here for me, because one of them, an NCO started striding up the steps once I got out into the sun.

"Sir, I'm Sergeant Lacroix, Alpha Platoon, Baker Company, 71st Battalion, 1st Kronus Regiment. Are you Agent Veil, from his Majesty's Inquisition, sir?"

"I'm an Inquisitorial agent, yes." I nodded at the sergeant.

"We're to escort you to see the General, sir."

"Splendid. Just a moment."

I took a deep breath and let my mental barriers ease up a tiny bit. Touching the warp was both exhilarating and revolting. The sheer raw power at one's command was only surpassed by the perils that laid in wait over there. This time was much worse than usual. The warp here was akin a boiling cauldron, just needing a push to explode into violence.

That didn't bode well for anyone. I sent a prayer to the Emperor on Holy Terra that Inquisitor Requista would be successful in his Heretic hunt before the imbeciles could do something particularly idiotic and doom us all.

I touche an tiny fraction of the power the warp "freely" offered me, using it to pick up my cargo container and make it float after me. That was an obvious power play, intended to rattle the Guardsmen a bit before I started questioning them during our ride to meet the brass. At the moment they were my best and only source of information and I was going to ruthlessly milk that, mind screwing included.

As expected, none of the soldiers were particularly happy at my mostly harmless display of witchcraft. It got them nervous, on edge.

"Shall we go?" I beamed at the Guardsmen, who were throwing uneasy glances at the cargo crate floating behind me. They reluctantly piled into the Chimera - which had an auto cannon mounted on top - and I followed suit. Once inside I lowered my luggage to the ground and took a free seat. "How's the situation around here? While making my way planet side I heard some concerning rumors."

The troopers looked at each other and hastily shook their heads.

"No idea, sir. We just do what we're ordered to." Lacroix shrugged.

To tell you the truth, my time in the shcola didn't made me a silver tongued devil. They were too busy teaching us how to literally tear thoughts from people's minds or effective interrogation methods, which was Inquisition speak for how to torture people, while keeping them alive so we could actually learn something.

Actually being nice and persuasive, that wasn't something they taught. Such things were apparently mere superstition and never worked. At least that's what Inquisitor Gregory Foch, believed and he was the one who taught us how to untangle reluctant tongues. Besides, anyone who didn't start singing about any sins he though might be perpetrated by a person he either knew or heard about, was supposedly an obvious heretic who needed to be questioned…

I took those lessons with a grain of salt, but made sure that Foch thought me to be very attentive student who agreed with his methods. Of course I did. I had no desire to be a volunteered like Claudia after mounting off to the Inquisitor.

Last I heard the medicae were finally putting her back together and she might return to school in an year or so. Fortunately for her she was a scion of a minor Noble house and they were able to pay for the expensive treatment. Anyone with less wealth and connections would have received the Emperor's mercy if they were lucky.

But I digress. I had a squad of soldiers to grill about the mess I had unwittingly landed myself in. I gave them a disarming smile, while I delved a bit deeper in the Warp. Their very souls shone around me with the dull light of the Empyrean blind majority of the population. I focused on the people around them and laced my voice with intention and power.

"The overall situation, Sergeant Lacroix. Give me a summary. Tell me about the issues with the Blood Ravens too."

The NCO stiffened and his eyes glazed. The rest of the Guardsmen shrunk back from us. I could sense the fear radiating out of them.

It was tasty.

"It's an Emperor damned mess!" Lacroix sneered. "We were sent here to recover this world from the Tau and the local bloody xeno lovers. We took this city with light casualties. Before we could even properly set up FOB and depots, the damn knife-ears started raiding our rear areas. Then the fucking Orks landed and the Eldar had been funneling them our way ever since. Meanwhile the damned blue skins had been taking pot shots at everyone and they're keen on retaking Victory Bay and kicking us off this rock. It's only thanks to the General we've been able not only to hold our positions but retake the farmlands beyond the city limits." The Sergeant paused to take a deep breath. "When the Astrates arrived last week, we thought that it was Emperor's blessing. Instead they demanded that we leave the planet and evacuate the populace. The General refused, because he has orders from up high to secure this planet. In the last three days the Astrates wiped out two companies in the farmlands and I heard we've shelled one of their forward outposts. It's a fucking damned mess." Lacroix shook his head in disgust.

"What about the Inquisitor Requista?" I asked.

"He was here a few days before the Astrates arrived. Took a Storpmtrooper platoon, his retinue and went hunting heretics. I hope he'll get the fucking traitors."

Well, wasn't that just peachy. Apparently the problem wasn't with the IG and instead the Space Marines were feeling unreasonable today. I was certain that the General would want me to fix that mess, though I simply lacked the authority to even suggest a course of action to the Astrates.

Yet, I would probably have to do so anyway and hope not to get a bolter round to the head for my trouble. Joy.

 **=ATBS=**

 **Part 3**

 **Victory Bay**

 **Kronus**

We were barely halfway to the main Imperial Guard base in the city where General Lucas Alexander was lurking, when the troopers finished apprising me of the situation. On the bright side, with the arrival of "Blood of Saints", the guard now had more than enough munition and equipment to conquer this world twice over. When combined with what was left of the PDF after the mandatory purge, which was a given when you consider that the locals were tight with the Tau, the IG had the numbers too.

There was just one little snag. The Strike Cruiser wasn't likely to let the equipment get down here in one piece unless the bloody idiotic mess between the Guard and the Astrates was resolved.

We spent the rest of the ride in silence, something that gave me a time to think. I was idly staring through one of the side gun ports, marveling at the city around us. The place was no hive, just a handful of ornate, tall buildings with the rest sprawling all around us. It was eerie for someone like me, who could only remember a single Hive City as the way people in the Empire lived. Most of the buildings, especially the older ones, were typical Imperial engineering - tough things with as much ornamentation as there were Thrones for. They were beautiful too, at least in my humble opinion.

Then there was the newer construction. It was simply wrong – from the clashing color schemes to the rounded forms without any straight angles. It wasn't something most humans would ever consider building. I frowned. This world was supposed to have been under heavy Tau influence before General Alexander and company came to bring them back in the fold by shooting anyone who wasn't fast enough in decrying the Xenos.

At least I didn't have to deal with the Adepta Sororitas. The few I had the misfortune to meet simply creeped me out even if they were otherwise stunning women. At least the pair I met back on Omnicron.

I returned my thoughts to the problem at hand and let out a mental sigh.

I needed a plan, though most things that ran through my mind ended with my brain splattered over the nearest wall.

Betting on the small amount of authority that Lord Requista's missive gave me might have worked… if the General Alexander was the one being antagonistic and if he suddenly decided to act reasonable after seeing the dataslate.

Nothing short of a direct Inquisitorial order was going to make the Astrates even listen.

Fuck it. I would have to wing it after listening about the situation firsthand. That was always less than ideal.

Soon we started hitting checkpoints, but thanks to Lacroix' written orders and my Sigil we were waved through after a cursory look in the troop compartment. No one sensible wanted to piss off anyone even tangentially connected with the Inquisition. Doing so usually was hazardous for the health.

Eventually we reached the main Guard base in the city, which had taken over a rather large park.

On entering the base, we were actually properly inspected - and once the guards were reasonably sure that we weren't a bunch of Eldar masquerading like good men - let in.

The former park was turned into barracks, motor pools, ammo depots and gunship landing pads, while its surrounding area was fortified with bunkers, trenches, prefab walls, good old fashioned barbed wire and a lot of weapon emplacements. The liberal dispersal of various mines on the likely approaches went without saying.

I could see whole companies drilling, while cog-heads were blessing at least a battalion worth of armor. Most of the tanks were the good old Leman Russ, though I could see three huge Baneblades in the center of the formation.

It was certainly impressive. I had to make sure that our good friends in the Adeptus Astrates didn't come here to turn all this splendid equipment into so much scrap.

The Chimera parked in front of a bunker's entrance, one that was guarded by a squad of Stormtroopers. It was time to face the music.

A few checkpoints later, I was led into the command center, where General Alexander and his officers were looking over a map of the region.

"General, Sir. The Inquisitorial Agent as ordered." Lacroix saluted.

"Good job, soldier. Go get something warm to eat." The General rumbled. He turned towards me, revealing a face weathered by the elements. "We have a problem, Agent. One I hope you can fix."

"I'm all ears, sir."

"The Emperor's Adeptus Astartes have issued a purge of Kronus and ordered us to withdraw. They have already engaged my troops massacring them on three separate occasions." He glared at me as if all this was my fault. "I already have standing orders from Segmentum Command. This world must be secured or we will die trying. I would rather avoid the latter."

Oh, my. I might get to like the man. I agreed wholeheartedly with the not dying idea.

"You want me to convince the Astrates not to kill us all." I went to the heart of the matter.

The General winced, but nodded. The other officers gave me a dirty looks instead.

"I'm ready to talk with whoever's in charge over there, though I don't know how much good it would do. I'm not an Inquisitor." I shrugged.

"I was afraid of that. I would like you to do your best. The lives of everyone here might depend on that."

Well, shit. The way the General was approaching me meant that the situation was more fucked up than his succinct summary implied. Great.

"Well, if someone would be good enough to patch me to the Space Marines. I hope you have a communications line open with them despite the ongoing unpleasantries."

More dirty looks.

"Leftenant Williams. Patch the Agent."

A minute later, I was facing a small, green tinted screen. It showed an Adeptus Astrates helmet.

"This is Brother-Sergeant Koleman. Are you ready to depart Kronus?"

"My Lord." I gave a proper bow. "This is Delkatar Veil, agent of the Holy Inquisition. May I inquire what's the reason for the conflict between the Emperor's Space Marines and the Imperial Guard on Kronus?" I asked politely.

For a long moment the super soldier stared at me. "We have orders by our Chapter Master to purge Kronus. So far we've been rather accommodating to the locals and the Imperial Guard. That won't be the case for much longer. We have to do our duty."

"My Lord, I believe you're aware that General Alexander and his troops are under orders by the Segmentum Command. To retreat even if The God Emperor's Adeptus Astrates demand it would be an act of treason."

"That's regrettable." The Sergeant didn't appear to be moved at all. It was worth a shot anyway.

"What would it take for you to call off the Purge at least until the conflicting orders are cleared up by higher authority?" I asked.

"Order by The Chapter Master or someone with equal authority."

"Would Inquisitorial order do?"

"It might be enough for the Force Commander to consider cease fire." Koleman nodded.

"May I make two suggestion both to the Adeptus Astrates and you General Alexander?" I asked carefully.

"I'm listening." The Officer spoke clearly.

"I'll entertain you in view of the organization you represent." Koleman's voice was toneless, showing no emotion.

"As I understand the situation, there are three Xeno factions currently operating on Kronus? Tau, Eldar and most recently Orks?"

"Correct." The Space Marine just stared at me through the screen.

"Then may I suggest that you concentrate all purging efforts against them for the next few days? The same goes for the Imperial Guards."

"That's our duty." Alexander sounded eager.

"What would that accomplish?" Koleman wasn't buying it.

"Not kill loyal Imperial Citizens while I go and retrieve Inquisitor Requista. That's my second request. I would want an escort from the Imperial Guard to achieve that objective. I most humbly request that one Space Marine accompany us so he can witness whatever decision the Lord Inquisitor makes and immediately inform his battle brothers of it. I believe that such course of action would benefit the Empire the best."

"I'll bring this request to Captain Thule." Koleman cut off the connection.

"Do you think that this stunt will work?" The General asked.

"At worst it might buy your men a bit of breathing space. Sir, are you willing to provide me with escort and transport to the Deimos Peninsula?"

"If it stops the Astrates from shooting my boys and girls even for a few days, I'll do it gladly. What do you need?"

"I'd prefer a mech platoon and at least a squad of Stormtroopers. Whatever Lord Requista ran into has to be nasty or he would have been in contact by now."

"I'll see what we can spare."

Now the ball was in Captain Thule's hands.


	2. Chapter 1 Parts 4&5

**AN: This part was betaed by Seylerius on the sufficient velocity forums. Thank you very much for the time and effort you put in cleaning up this story!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Warhammer 40K games, books or movies. They belong to their creators and/or copyright owners. I make no money from this story. It is not for sale or rent.**

 **A Tale of Blood and Steel**

 **Chapter 1: Welcome to the Inquisition**

 **=ATBS=**

 **Part 4**

 **Imperial Guard base "Final Liberation"**

 **Victory Bay**

 **Kronus**

"Normally I'dlaugh at such a request." Captain Lenox sounded rather irritated over the vox. "After the Astartes Cruiser threatened to blow MY SHIP to pieces for no good reason, I'm inclined to agree. Sent your message and our Astropath will transmit it. Do you have any particular destination in mind?"

"The nearest Naval base with request to make it available immediately to the Inquisition? As well as Segmentum Command." I asked.

"That might work."

My station strikes again. Someone actually experienced and higher up on the food chain would know where to send such a message as mine so it would light afire under people's feet.

"Priority Transmission to Segmentum Command and the nearest Naval Units to the Zeus System, Lithesh Sector. Imperial Guard units and Adeptus Astartes Blood Ravens in open warfare on the surface. Reason: conflicting orders from Segmentum Command and Astartes Chapter Master. Higher authority intervention needed to resolve the conflict. Inquisitor Requista has been out of contact for a weekinvestigating Heretic activity on the Deimos Peninsula. Status unknown, will investigate Xeno presence confirmed on Kronus – Eldar, Tau and Ork. Requesting clarification of orders, Inquisitorial support and additional reinforcements. Inquisitorial Agent Delkatar Veil, identification..."

"I hope that works. If it wasn't for Inquisitor Requista's orders to send you that message, the Astartes Cruiser would have kept jamming our comms and prevented us from contacting the "Blood of Saints" just as it continued doing after you left the ship." General Alexander who had been keeping an ear for my message grumbled once I was done.

"It's like they aren't particularly keen on betting that their orders might be countermanded." I mussed. "Any idea what has the noble Astartes ready to murder us all along with the Xenos?" I asked.

"Not sure. One of our scout teams reported finding some kind of relics before we lost contact. When I sent a mech company to investigate, they were butchered by the Space Marines." Alexander looked positively murderous as he relied that little tidbit.

"Well, I hope they would enjoy the Ordo's investigation on their activities."

Alexander smirked at that. "I can give you a short platoon, five Chimeras and a handful of Stormtroopers. I hope that willbe enough."

"Me too. Whatever is responsible for Lord Requista being out of contact that long hasto be nasty. Thank you for the support, General. Do you have any idea where exactly in Deimos Peninsula Lord Requista went?"

"Unfortunately no. He kept his own council."

That was suboptimal. It was time to bite the bullet again. "Wouldit be possible for someone to guide me to his quarters? There might be some pointers."

"I can't decide if you're very brave or foolish." The General raised and eyebrow at me.

"Try desperate. I know I could be shot when we find the Inquisitor, though the alternatives aren't much better."

"I'll see to it. A few Stormtrooperswho ran errands for the Inquisitor are around the base. I'll assign them to you. They know where he stayed in the city." Alexandergave me a sharp nod and returned to planning on how to deal with the myriad of enemies besieging Kronus.

That in itself was curious. It would have actually been safer and lower profile if Requista had stayed in the base and requisitioning barracks for only him and his retinue would have been a child's play.

 **=ATBS=**

When the General said move, the IG usually does so with a gusto. At least the First Kronus Regiment, the Liberators as they were now known did so.

Just a few minutes after I sent the message that hopefully would get this mess sorted out if I failed in retrieving Requista in one piece, I was standing in front of the CP, where the promised Chimeras were already waiting. Their Leftenant, one Felicia Pickos was standing at parade rest, flanked by two grizzled NCOs. Behind them, a trio of Stormtroopers clad in a armor that looked much more advanced than the carapace every Guardsman on Kronus seemed to wear, were lounging on the middle APC.

"Sir. Third Platoon, Alpha Company, 56thBattalion First Kronus Regiment, reporting for duty!" The woman saluted, speaking with the voice of a drill instructor. She had the bearing of one too, reminding me for the people who handled some of our training in the shcola. She was likelya promoted NCO, which meant that Pickos knew what the hell she was doing.

I gave her a reassuring smile. My chances for survival just jumped up a bit.

"Splendid. Are you familiar with the Deimos peninsula, Leftenant?" I asked.

"Only by map, sir."

"We'll be going there to find a missing Inquisitor and his retinue."

That earned me a long-suffered look. So I wasn't the only one to suspect that Requista might have chewed up more than he could handle.

"What's your plan, sir?"

"Find if someone cannarrow down where exactly Inquisitor Requista went and failing that just head into the peninsula and start asking pointed questions." I smiled thinly. I would be getting answers one way or another.

I turned my attention to the Stormtroopers.

"Soldiers, I understand that you did a few odd jobs for the Lord Inquisitor and know where he stayed in the city?"

"That's right." The apparent leader of the group nodded and stood straighter."

"We'll be going there while waiting for the Astartes to make up their minds."

"About what sir?" The Leftenant asked. "If it isn't too much to ask, sir!" She hastily added.

"If they willaccept my suggestion to concentrate their efforts on the Xeno instead of trying to kill us as well at least until we can locate the Inquisitor so he canstraighten up this mess." The troopers in earshot perked up at that.

"Ah. I hope they will." Pickos nodded.

Right now I was following the advice of First Sergeant Nolan, who was the latest NCO handling my CQB training in the shcola. He was on the opinion that it was always prudent to make sure that the average IG trooper has at least a few reasons to keep you alive. Doing your best to prevent Spake Marines from murdering them all fell square in that category I think. According to Nolan, such little things increased the likelihood of the troopers actually trying to save me when I was in a scrap and decreased the chance of getting "accidentally" shot in the back. Multiple times.

"Your name trooper?" I asked the Stormtrooper who addressed me.

"Corporal Santos, sir."

"You and your two friends will act as my bodyguards until we get the job done. Do you have any idea where the Inquisitor headed to?"

"Negative, sir."

"Then we're going to check up his quarters for clues. On my authority so don't worry about getting shot if he disapproves. Where is he staying anyway?"

"Elysium district, to the south west of here."

"Leftenant, I trust there won't be any problem getting there now?" I asked.

"Not that I know of, sir."

"Let's get going."

 **=ATBS=**

 **Part 5**

 **Diomedesresidential complex**

 **Elysium District**

 **Victory Bay**

In hindsight, my idea turned out to be sub-optimal. The heavy armed and armored servitors that had us pinned in the end of the corridor made that point very clear.

"Sir, you could have warned us about them!" Santos shouted over the roar of bolter rounds disintegrating the corridor leading to Requista's quarters.

"Throwa Krak grenade or two downrange." I snapped back.

 _Everything started so well too. First, Captain Thule had agreed to be somewhat reasonable and informed us that he would sent a Space Marine to meet us on the main route leading to Deimos. He would also try not to annihilate any more Guard companies while we searched for Requista, though he didn't made any firm promises on that point._

 _Getting to the district where the Inquisitor was staying went without a hitch too. It was quite enjoyable too. This place had parks! With actual real trees and plants! It so_ _damned green and bloody awesome!_

 _It was the first time I remember being this close to live plants, you know._

 _Thanks to the view I was in a rather high spirits when we reached the ten story residential building where Requista had made his lair._

The Stormtrooper obeyed and retrieved the grenades from his harness. In the meantime I concentrated, opening my mind to the Warp. Touching it was as exhilarating as ever, yet it made me flinch. It felt even nastier and more turbulent than few hours ago. Whatever was affecting it so wasn't good news. With an ugly snarl I fueled myself with the Warp's tainted power, channeling and shaping it. Purple energies coiled around my left hand, manifesting in the form of lighting. Allowing the Immaterium to enhance my senses I let my mind expand until I knew where exactly the Combat Servitors were standing.

I gave a sharp nod to Santos and moved faster than an ordinary human had any right to be. My hand leaned over the corner behind which we were hiding and I released the Warp-craft I had prepared. That was followed by the Corporal throwing the grenades.

The eldritch bolt slammed into the chassis of the closest Servitor, caving in the armor as if it was a tissue paper, before hitting something important. I could feel the former man freeze in its tracks before the Kraks hit, bathing the corridor in fire and shrapnel. The overpressure wave slammed into us next, though my Warp enhanced body and the Stormtroopers' armor kept us intact.

I didn't release my connection with the Immaterium until I was reasonably sure that both Combat Servitors were disabled.

"I think that they're done. Check carefully and shoot them a few times to make sure." I grunted and gently let go of my connection with the Warp, while quietly reciting prayers to the Emperor. The power reluctantly left me, leaving me weaker and hungry for more.

There was something damn wrong with the Warp and considering what exactly it was at the best of times, that was saying something.

I finished my prayer, while Valencia and Dole - the other two Stormtroopers - gleefully shot to pieces what was left from the Servitors. The latter wasn't something I was going to mention to any Cog-head. They tended to be peeved off and downright murderous about such things.

Strange people.

I shook my head, trying to concentrate on the task at hand. That was usually hard just after I had stopped channeling the Warp. My mind kept jumping to odd places or the desire to open myself for more power.

It was a distracting issue, one that I was taught should be mitigated as I gained more experience and until then I should be praying for the Emperor's protection and hope for the best - or so my instructors taught me.

It was too bad that the Emperor was undoubtedly too busy dealing with much bigger issues than one poor, novice Psyker who was liable to get killed while distracted.

"It's clear, sir." Santos shouted from down the corridor.

I leaned over the corner and winced. The place was torn to shreds from bolter and laser fire, even before the rather energetic way we ended the firefight.

"Good. Now let's see what other surprises the Lord Inquisitor had left us."

"You first, sir. You have a better chance of dealing with whatever awaits us in there." Santos' voice lacked any emotion.

"Don't worry. I won't be using you as bait for any traps. That would be a waste."

Were those sighs of relief I heard? I shrugged and carefully avoided the smoldering remains of the Servitors.

 _Getting almost killed was my fault. I should have known better. It was a no-brainer that an Inquisitor would have defenses protecting their quarters. When I first saw the Combat Servitors – humans turned into two meter tall murderous cyborgs with cogitators for brains, I was overconfident. So far my Sigil had been sufficient to get me through most everything I faced. Besides it had a lot of codes buried within it, so I could be identified for who I was._

 _That's why I presented it to be scanned with no care in the world._

" _Codes not recognized. Intruders detected."_

 _Those words chilled my blood._

 _"BACK!" I shouted and at the same time disregarded most of what I was taught about safely touching the Warp. I sprang through my mental defenses and plunged my mind in the Immaterium. The raw power made me feel giddy, like a god among men. The tainted energies ran through my body at the speed of thought, enhancing me beyond what was usually possible for a human._

" _Inquisitorial Sigil detected… Error.. Engaging intruders..."_

 _The weapons of the Servitors were already aiming at me when I channeled the Warp into a blunt wave of physical force that threw them off their feet._

 _That didn't stop them from opening fire with built in lasguns, though it fortunately threw off the aim of the rather large bolters they had built into_ _their arms._

 _I wasted no time, turned tail and sprinted down the corridor, hoping that my carapace would be up to the task. I stumbled as my back was hit, but continued running. I was almost at the end when searing pain lanced over my right hand. Another blast caught me in the back and this time sent me flailing on the floor. Before the Combat Servitors could blast me to pieces, a strong hand pulled me behind the corner._

 _Not a moment too soon, because a second later my former position was torn apart by bolter fire._

I winced. That had been particularly dumb and overconfident thing to do. My body shook as the adrenalin that had flooded me at the start of the firefight started draining out. Just great. My first time out working and I almost got myself and the Stormtroopers killed. Not a nice start at all. Not to mention that if I wasn't enhanced by the Warp at the time, that shot would have blasted off my arm instead of letting me get off with only a nasty burn.

A few deep breaths and a calming mental exercise later, I had centered myself. Somewhat.

This time I accessed the Warp properly, which meant very, very carefully. Its tainted power washed over me, invigorating my body. I closed my eyes, letting my mind wander forward into Requista's quarters. I could sense no more servitors, though there was somethingblessed, which shone hard enough in the Warpthat itprevented me from perceiving anything past the corridor leading deeper in the apartment.

I pulled out my chainsword, brought it to screaming life and tore apart the battered heavy wooden doors that were in my way. Splinters flew in all directionsas the obstacle disintegrated under my strikes. Once I had the doors done for, I looked inside.

Even the small corridor I could see was quite opulent. Expensive rugs over marble, wallscovered with wooden paneling and paintings… The place looked fit for a noble. Apparently Requista liked his creature comforts. Can't say I blame him really.

A Warp blast, similar to what I used to disable one of the servitors obliterated the next door from a safe distance. That turned out to be simple paranoia, because no further attackers materialized. No traps were triggered either, but after my earlier mishap I was suddenly a firm believer in the better safe than messily dead school of thought.

I went through the blasted door, ready to jump back in the corridor and run like hell if needed. I found myself in a large living room, furnished richlyand tastefully enough that most nobles would be hard pressed to find a reason to complain, though that was less than helpful in this situation. Until I laid my eyes on a large table surrounded by intricately carvedstools. It had an old fashioned paper map strewnover it. I walked there and looked it over. Sure enough, it depictedthe Deimos Peninsula, though there weren't any helpful markings showing where Requista went.

Fortunately I wasn't limited to what was visible to the naked eye. Looking at the map through the prism of the Warp was different. There were spots that psychically resonated, though I lacked a certain context, a point from which to attack the problem.

I needed an item belonging to Requista, one on which his presence had been imprinted. I drew back, leaving only a tiny connection between my mind and the warp and looked around. The most likely place I would find something was the room where I could sense the relic, but that was also the last one I was going to check. I was sure that there were additional protectionsaround it.

Luckily I didn't need to go in there. In the dining room I found a crimson cloak lying discarded on a chair. It had the stylized symbol of the Inquisition embodied on it, though nothing else special I could feel. No protective runes or anythinglike that.

That was actually great. No one but an Inquisitor would dare wear such an article of clothing.

I went next to the cloak and touched it, focusing on it through the Warp. My head was starting to throb already but I got what I needed.

 _The world around me shattered, the Warp clawing at my mind. A blurry image appeared._

 _A man, a bit taller than myself. Middle aged, graying and receding short hair. Scarred face with bionic eye shining in the night. Just looking at him, you'd simply disregard him like someone unimportant, unimpressive._

 _Something that served him well. He looked at me and the vision shattered._

I stumbled back and groaned. My head was killing me. What was to follow was going to be really unpleasant. The state of the Warp around here made even the relatively simple things exhausting and painful even if it freely offered more power than I could comfortably handle at the best of days. The very act of touching it was the greatest power trip ever combined with walking through the sewers of a wretched Hive city.

I returned to the map all the while muttering prayers to the Emperor.

Now that I was familiar with Requista's psychic signature, I had something to work with. I went deeper into the Warp. Disregarding the whispering voices in the back of my head I concentrated on the places on the map that had the strongestemotional imprint.

 _Requista was leaning over the table, speaking to someone I couldn't see. I couldn't hear his words, they were unintelligible whispers, though I could see where he was pointing. He shook his head and moved his finger towards the mountains in the middle of the peninsula. His tone became more insistent. His face twisted into a grimace._

My vision became blurry, then turned red. My head felt like it was about to explode. The Warp around me was getting even more restless if that was even possible. I could feel something skittering, it was hissing hungrily and getting closer.

It took all my remaining willpower to tear myself away and plunge back firmly into my body. My trembling lips were busy muttering litanies of protection against Chaos.

I didn't know how close that thing came to attacking me, whatever the cursed warp-spawn was, but it was too close for comfort. I felt something wet sliding down my cheeks and brushed it with a finger before looking at it.

It was blood.

"Fuck." I groaned.

"Sir, are you all right?" Santos' voice was wary, on edge.

"I"ll live. That was to close to comfort." I whispered in a tired voice. "At least I know where the Inquisitor went. We need to go. And call the medic, he should look me over. I almost melted my damn brain."

That didn't reassure the Stormtroopers. When I looked up at them, they were pointing their Hotshots at me.


	3. Chapter 1 Parts 6&7

**AN: This part was betaed by Seylerius on the sufficient velocity forums. Thank you very much for the time and effort you put in cleaning up this story!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Warhammer 40K games, books or movies. They belong to their creators and/or copyright owners. I make no money from this story. It is not for sale or rent.**

 **A Tale of Blood and Steel**

 **Chapter 1: Welcome to the Inquisition**

 **=ATBS=**

 **Part 6**

 **Diomedesresidential complex**

 **Elysium District**

 **Victory Bay**

"Boys, if I was going to suddenly turn into a daemon, I would have done it already. In that case you should have started shooting a minute or so ago." I deadpanned and brushed off the blood on my face. "Besides is this the thanks I get for risking my very soul in order to help you guys?" I glared at them.

"How is this helping us?" Santos waved at me with his gun.

"You're well aware what the Astartes would do once their patience runs out, right? The sooner we find the Inquisitor the less of your buddies will die." I didn't add that we might not find him in a state to help anyone but the Emperor.

"Corporal, he actually makes sense." Dole muttered.

"Yeah, but the Inquisitor get the rest of our squad killed when he sent us after that Eldar." Valencia added.

I should have asked what exactly did the Stormtroopers did for Requista before requesting them as my bodyguards. I made a mental note to seek such information in the future if I got out of this snag alive.

"He's right though. If someone doesn't talk some sense to the Marines we're fucked like Slaaneshi cultists after an orgy." Dole nodded sagely.

"How do you know that?" I asked pointedly

"We had to clean up that nest of cultists on Bendix's World before we deployed here." I could clear the disgust in Santos' voice clearly.

"Yep. Nasty stuff." Valencia nodded.

"You're lucky that I'm not a paranoid member of the Ordo Hereticus." I sighed. "Are you going to shoot me or can we go? I could really use some painkillers right now."

"What do you think boss?" Valencia asked.

"Well… He isn't growing tentacles or extra limbs; besides, he sounds sane."

"Saner than most of our commanders before we got assigned to General Alexander's regiment" Dole added.

So the Sarge was right. Showing that you care about the lives of the troops could save your life. Unless they were going to shoot me anyway.

I wondered if I could channel enough Warp energy to save myself, before my head blew up, because it already felt as if Titans were marching through it.

I had no illusions that I could draw my laspistol and shoot before being gunned down, much less use my chainsword. Perhaps now it wasn't the best moment to mention what might happen if I fucked up using the Warp to save myself. Such an explanation was all but guaranteed to get me shot just in case.

"Let's go see the medic… sir. You look like shit." Santos lowered his weapon and his men followed suit.

"I feel worse. Thanks for not using me for target practice."

"Day's still young." Valencia snorted.

 **=ATBS=**

 **Saint Hortensia's Highway**

 **Deimos Peninsula**

We left a squad to secure Requista's apartment and calm down the locals. The medic started checking me up after we piled up in the Chimera and went on our way to meet the Astartes.

Some painkillers, a bandage and an order to try and get a bit of rest was his conclusion. While he couldn't find anything permanently wrong with me, the medicae didn't have the equipment at hand for any in depth scans so I had to hope for the best.

The rest on the other hand was out of the question once we neared our destination. Even without the Warp feeling particularly hellish and pissed off here, I would still be racing to find Requista anyway. With the Immaterium's state, that just became even more important.

Still, there wasn't a thing stopping me from getting a nap while we drove through the countryside. I did sleep, dreaming of dark, formless shapes.

It didn't do much to rejuvenate me, before Santos shook me awake, earning himself a bleary-eyed glare.

"The Astartes is in sight, sir. We'll reach him in a few minutes."

I gave him a nod and stretched, cursing the lack of caff on the Chimeras. That should be a vital feature for the functioning of the troops.

Then I looked outside through the nearest gun slit. There were fields all around us, covered by a blanket of waving yellow plants. Something to do with feeding the local populace, no doubt. I could see a handful of people and machines tending them, though not near enough I would expect.

A five-cornered war might give the locals other things to worry about beside the harvest, no matter how important it might be. Considering that the fields around Victory Bay were starting to resemble a lunar landscape, because of the constant skirmishes between the Guard, Tau, Ork probing attacks and Eldar incursions, that might turn out to be a problem long term.

As we got nearer, I dared take a peak at the Marine waiting us through the Warp and recoiled back.

He was the strongest presence in the Immaterium I had yet to meet! I frowned. That very thought sounded somewhat wrong in my head.

The convoy ground to a halt when we reached the Astartes. It was time to meet him and see if he was going to be actually helpful.

I was first out once the ramp lowered and headed towards the large Warp presence.

Damn. He was big. More like _really huge._ He was an armored behemoth at least a head over two meters tall, clad in a pristine power armor that was covered with purity seals, which shone in the Warp with the power of the blessing they carried. He was leaning on a large assault bike, which had built in a pair of auto-cannons. A golden platted warhammer could be seen sticking out of a side compartment of his ride.

"Welcome. I'm Brother Librarian Anteas." The Astartes turned his helmet my way. His voice boomed, carrying over the nearby fields.

"My Lord!" I bowed and the Leftenant, who joined us then followed my example. What the hell was a Librarian doing out here by himself?!

"So you're the one that made Thule listen to reason." Anteas studied me for a moment. "I expected you to be taller."

I just stared at the supersoldier. Did he just make a joke?! Then his first words hit me. So not everyone in the Blood Ravens was totally on board with slaughtering loyal Imperial citizens because of conflicting orders. That was good to know.

"Do you know where we should start seeking the Inquisitor? We should retrieve him before the Captain gets impatient again."

"Ah. Yes, My Lord. I scryed his destination from a map in his quarters."

"Good, good. You've noticed the state of the Warp then?" The Librarian asked.

"It's the nastiest I've ever felt." I told him the truth, yet those words rang hollow too. I had the feeling that I've experienced even nastier parts of the Immaterium though I couldn't recall it.

"It's quite unpleasant, isn't it? It heralds nothing good for any of us. We should hurry with finding Requista." With those words he turned around and got on his bike.

"Let's go find the Inquisitor." I nodded to Pickos, who was staring at the Librarian.

I think that the Astartes joking broke her and it was something I was still trying to wrap my head around.

 **=ATBS=**

 **Part 7**

 **Stonecutter village**

 **Deimos Peninsula**

 **Kronus**

A few hours later we reached a small settlement nestled in a valley below the plateau dominating the southern part of the peninsula. Through it laid the most direct and fastest land route to our target.

It was a good place to ask a few questions of the locals. First I needed to know if the Inquisitor had passed through here and as important, to figure out what was he seeking in this part of Kronus. So far Deimos and the surrounding provinces were mostly untouched by the war save for the occasional Orkish raid.

That was the plan anyway. It hit a snag before we even parked in the small square that served as a center for the village.

One would expect to find a lot of onlookers when a platoon of Imperial Guardsmen accompanied by an Astrates arrive at their doorstep.

That would have been normal.

There was not a single person outside when we parked in the plaza.

"It's too quiet, sir." Santos muttered quietly. The Corporal was carefully studying the surrounding buildings through a gunport.

"That's probably the first time outside of an active warzone that I don't see bystanders gawking at us. The Space Marine by himself would guarantee that everyone who could would be outside looking.

"Or running for the hills. In either case we would have heard or saw someone." Valencia added.

"Weapons on the ready." I spoke quietly and drew my pistol. My right hand fell on the hilt of my sword.

We weren't the only ones to smell trouble. The rest of the Guardsmen dispersed immediately after leaving the Chimeras and got under whatever cover they could. The only one who stood seemingly without a trouble in the world was the Librarian, though he had pulled his warhammer out of its compartment.

I sighed and concentrated, before carefully touching the Warp.

There were… echoes of pain and terror. An odd feeling that resembled death but not quite. Yet, they both felt somewhat subdued.

There were no living people here beside us that I could sense, though that was no guarantee. I had to pull back from the Warp as my head started pounding almost immediately. The Immaterium felt eager, almost hungry. As if it was holding its breath, while it was waiting for something.

That wasn't a nice sensation at all.

"This settlement is empty." Anteas voice was quieter, merely the volume of a rather loud man.

"Leftenant, sent a few squads to check the nearby buildings. Men don't leave your buddies out of your sight. There's something very wrong here." I added. The last I spoke quietly so they won't hear it.

Thad didn't help with the Librarian who inclined his head in my direction.

"Walk with me. We'll check the Chapel." Anteas ordered.

I shrugged and walked fast after him. At least he took care to walk reasonably slowly so we wouldn't need to run after him to keep up. The Stormtroopers fell in behind me and I saw the Leftenant wave a squad to follow us. She and two fire-teams remained with the vehicles, while the rest of the platoon moved toward the nearest buildings.

"Aren't you curious?" The Astartes asked when we caught up with him.

"About what, My Lord?"

His helmeted head swiveled my way and he gave me a pointed look. I didn't know that a Space Marine helmet could convey so much.

"Truth to be told, yes. At best I expected your Captain to send the lowest-ranked Astartes under his command. Instead we got you, My Lord. Unless I'm very much mistaken, your armor and all the seals on it signify that you aren't just any odd Blood Raven Librarian, which is even more surprising."

"Makes no damn sense, you mean." Was that amusement I could hear in his voice?!

I shrugged. It didn't.

"That was Thule's plan you know. To sent you a pair of Scout Marines, who are due for punishment detail."

I nodded. That was much more likely.

"I disagreed. Finding Requista is the most expedient way to stop this madness." Anteas sighed. "Unfortunately, the Captain doesn't believe him to be alive any longer. Not after being out of contact for a week now. That very well may be the case, though I had to take the chance. The alternative..."

"The Inquisition and Segmentum Command won't be thrilled when they learn about what has already happened. Any more skirmishes between Imperial forces for no good reason would be frowned upon at best."

"Indeed. Unfortunately our orders don't leave much for interpretation and Captain Thule isn't prepared to breach them even if it mean evicting the Imperial Guards from Kronus."

"I guess that as strongly worded suggestion from an Inquisitor would give the Captain the latitude he needs so we can concentrate on dealing with the Xenos?"

"That's why I'm here. There are some of us that would take any chance to avoid spilling innocent human blood." The Librarian spoke quietly.

We were about to reach the Chapel. It was only a short alley away, one which was flanked by statues of Imperial Saints. Acting out of habit, I made the sigh of the Aquila and bowed my head.

"Do you smell that?" Dole asked. I could hear him sniffing behind me.

A light wind blew towards us from the direction of the Chapel and I could barely make out the scent too. It was the coppery stench of blood and it had to be an awful lot of it if we could smell from our position.

"Set up to provide cover!" I snapped at the Guardsmen following us. "Santos, prepare to breach. Check for traps first."

"No need. I'll lead the way." The Astartes rumbled and strode towards the Chapel.

Apparently I wasn't the only one who was fine with forced entry today. The Astartes pressed a rune on the hilt of his weapon and pale lighting started dancing around its head. He swung the warhammer as if it was a toy and simply shattered the door standing in his way.

The afternoon sun shone through the entrance, bathing the interior of the Chapel in its rays.

"Fuck me with a Baneblade!" Santos exclaimed. He was the first of us ordinary humans to see what was inside thanks to the tech built into his helmet.

Anteas was busy muttering a prayer for the dead, though his head was swiveling this way and that as he studied the interior of the Chapel. That's when I was finally able to see what awaited us inside.

The place resembled an old battlefield. The floor was covered with shattered and burned wood, though it was hard to make under the film of blood covering most of it. The walls were liberally sprayed with dry flaking blood, though I could see deep gashes in the stone where great claws had cleaved it without any trouble at all.

There were no bodies or even pieces of such, though there was more than enough blood spilled to account for at least couple of dozen people.

"May the Emperor damn whoever did this." I hissed.

I closed my eyes and opened my mind to the Warp, while steeling myself for what was to come. The echoes of pain, suffering and terror were still here, though muted again. As if whatever had happened was hundreds of years ago at least and not in the last few days.

It made no damned sense! My head should be splitting from the screams of the dying. I should be feeling the psychic imprint of their souls as they were murdered.

" _Curious, isn't it?" A deep voice boomed in my head._

 _Suddenly, there was a figure wreathed in light towering next to me. It was_ _Anteas_ _all right. His very soul shone with its purity and power._

" _That's not how I would put this." I waved around us._

 _While the Warp continued to be wild and angry around us, the Librarian's presence next to me made it bearable. My head did hurt a bit, but nowhere near what I expected._

 _What didn't change was the feeling of foreboding. Of eager expectation for something to happen._

 _It wasn't going to be anything good for us._

" _No. There's something afoot in this place, something familiar." A_ _nteas_ _frowned. "I can't sense what did this." He waved at the bloody floor. "There should be something. An imprint, a resonance left from whoever did it."_

" _It's as if they had no presence in the Warp." I muttered._

 _"Exactly!" The Librarian exclaimed. "That would account for the way the murders feel. Blanks perhaps? This at least isn't the work of Chaos. We would have known it at first sight."_

" _Considering that the Inquisitor came here to seek Heretics, this isn't reassuring. The last thing we need is another enemy."_

" _True. There isn't anything more we could find out right now."_

 _The shining presence next to me became muted as An_ _teas_ _pulled out of the Warp._

I was back firmly in my body moments later, still feeling the aftereffects of my little excursion.

"Don't give me that. I want you to check all reports of vanished people and see if there are any other settlements we've lost contact with without a good reason." Anteas was speaking aloud over the Vox built in his helmet.

It was a good idea. I would have Leftenant Pickos report back to base so they could check too.


	4. Chapter 1 Parts 8-9

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Warhammer 40K games, books or movies. They belong to their creators and/or copyright owners. I make no money from this story. It is not for sale or rent.**

 **AN: This part was betaed by Seylerius on the sufficient velocity forums. Thank you very much for the time and effort you put in cleaning up this story!**

 **A Tale of Blood and Steel**

 **=ATBS=**

 **Chapter 1: Welcome to the Inquisition**

 **Part 8**

 **Stonecutter village**

 **Deimos Peninsula**

 **Kronus**

The search squads found a few similar sites, where people had barricaded themselves, to no avail. Neither prayer, stubbs or the few ruined lasguns we found had helped the poor bastards.

"Sir, General Alexander requested that we investigate further, while we search for the Lord Inquisitor." Leftenant Pickos said after coming out of the command Chimera.

"That's a given." I sighed. As if we didn't have enough problems already.

"There's another village at the other end of the valley. The main route to the plateau passes through it." I jumped, hearing a deep voice behind me. I whirled around, with an angry retort on the tip of my tongue and then froze.

The Librarian was towering over me, casually leaning on his warhammer. How the hell did someone so big and clad in at least half a ton of armor move so quietly, damn it?

"You need to keep better situational awareness." Anteas chided me. He was amused at my reactions, the cheeky bastard.

Why the hell did I have to land myself the only Space Marine with a sense of humor?!

"I'll keep that in mind, My Lord."

"Good. It would be a pity if you got yourself killed because you didn't pay attention. As I was saying, there's another settlement on our way. It might be our best bet for gathering some useful information." If there was anyone still alive there was left unsaid.

"It's not like we have much of a choice." I muttered.

"No sir. The Tau are mounting a major offensive to regain the plains leading to Victory Bay. General Alexander can't spare any more units right now."

"The same is true for the Blood Ravens. A large Ork horde is approaching our main base of operations. Unless we hit something very nasty, we won't be getting any support, perhaps even then depending on the situation on the ground. There are three squads ready for orbital insertion though the frontline has priority."

"Even a single Astartes squad should be more than enough to deal with whatever we find." The Leftenant perked up.

I face-palmed. "You had to say that!" I groaned.

Anteas just stared at the Lt and shook his head.

"What? It's Astartes we're talking about! People like him!" She pointed at the Librarian.

"That's it. We're all dead." I moaned.

"We still might get lucky. At least a few of us." Anteas nodded sagely. "Few days after the last time I heard such a thing, we were neck deep in Orks."

"We've checked the whole village, right?"

"Alpha and Beta squads are checking a few houses on the outskirts and we're done." The LT nodded.

"Unless they find something of note, we're leaving when they finish."

"Yes. I feel that our time is running out." Anteas stated.

That wasn't what I wanted or needed to hear.

"Any news about unexplained disappearances or settlements out of contact without a reasonable explanation?" I asked.

"A lot of people had vanished near the desert further in the mainland, though that may be due to the Tau or Ork bands. We've lost contact with more than a few towns and villages there, though with all the Xeno activity in the region, that didn't raise an eyebrow back at HQ. It might be the usual suspects." Pickos shrugged.

"Until we can send an unit there to check all we've got is guesses. We need to find the Inquisitor and end this nonsense. We have more than enough problems without killing each other!" I snapped.

"That's why I'm here." Anteus sighed. "Unfortunately most of my company would rather follow our orders and purge everyone off this planet."

 **=ATBS=**

 **Jenova Town**

 **Deimos Peninsula**

 **Kronus**

At least the region wasn't completely deserted. About ten kilometers from the village, we started seeing people tending the fields surrounding the road. It was reassuring after the bloodbath we found. Even better, there were no accidents or anything else to slow us down.

We reached the town about a hour after sunset.

This place was a stark contrast to Stonecutter. Jenova was lit up so we could see it long before we actually approached. The town was much bigger than the small settlement that got massacred and perhaps that's what saved. Or it was simply a matter of distance from the base of whatever did the slaughtering.

Jenova had its inhabitants present too. We could see small groups of the locals clustered on street corners, talking or simply minding their own business. They were staring and pointing at us, especially once they saw our Space Marine.

The sight should have brought us a measure of relief. Instead...

That's where the veneer of business as usual ended. I could see the faces and eyes of some of the people, those staying close enough to street lights.

They weren't happy to see us, or even concerned. No. A lot of them were plain terrified. That starter ringing alarm bells in my head. If they were out of contact with a nearby settlements and had people vanishing, something that was likely, they should have been overjoyed or at least relieved by our arrival.

With the citizenry being anything but, well... that was problematic. I had the sneaking suspicion that we just found the nest of Heretics Requista had been searching for.

"Look alive people, this smells like trouble." I spoke.

Santos, who had been watching the sights nodded and Voxed a warning to the rest of the platoon just in case if they hadn't noticed.

Despite the irregular behavior of the locals we drove through the outskirts, heading for the town's center where the local arbiters and administration buildings were located.

Our destination turned out to be a cross between a moderately sized plaza for a town of this caliber, crossed with a park. There were a few ten story buildings to our right – the administrative and law enforcement centers for the whole peninsula were situated here even if the biggest populated centers were fifty or so kilometers south of here, build over the far end of the plateau.

When we arrived we found a welcome committee waiting for us. There were two men in the robes of the Admisnistratum and a single cog-head clad in the customary red, who had six mechatendrils waving gently behind his back. Each of the artificial limbs ended into either a weapon or tool.

A few steps behind the trio we could see two rows of a dozen Arbiters each. A couple of PDF squads were marching towards the waiting people from the left side of the plaza. From here it looked like they had flak vests and Lasguns.

"I hope we would avoid a few hours of speeches and posturing." Santos muttered.

"We'll just have to sick the Librarian on them." I spoke cheerfully, though I couldn't shake the feeling of impending doom. "It's time to face the music."

I stood up and straightened up my clothes, though it didn't do much for my appearance under the carapace armor. I made sure that my Sigil was visible around my left wrist and pressed the button opening the ramp.

The rest of the platoon was already disembarking. The squads were taking defensive positions around the Chimeras, not even trying to pretend that they were doing otherwise.

The apparent leader of the trio ready to meet us, just smiled at our blatant display of distrust and paranoia.

It wasn't a nice smile either.

I walked towards them, flanked by the Stormtroopers. A few seconds later Pickos joined us, shadowed by a squad of her men. Anteus finished up our procession when he took the right flank after retrieving his warhammer.

The Librarian's very presence should have been enough to insure that any pissing match came to a rather abrupt and embarassing end if the locals were dumb enough to try.

Instead they were smiling at us as if they knew something we didn't.

"Sir, look right." Santos muttered.

My head snapped in that direction. There were a lot of civilians moving through the park and heading our way. Scores of them at least.

"It's same here." Pickos whispered from my left.

That wasn't sinister at all. Nope.

My hands fell over my weapons, ready to draw them at a moment's notice. It appeared that we found our Heretics.

I whispered a prayer and touched the Warp, letting its energies course through me. I could feel the blazing presence of Anteus next to me as he did the same.

" _You're supposed to run this little excursion, Veil. Let's see how you're going to play this."_ I could hear the Librarian's voice in my head. While there was a bit of amusement in his tone, it couldn't hide the grim determination that practically oozed from the man.

Then my perception washed over the waiting party.

Their presence was _wrong._ I could feel the touch of the Warp on their souls and it _felt revolting, like a festering wound and spilled blood._

Yep. We found our heretics all right.

I smiled at the bastards and took a step in front of my companions.

"Inquisitor Requista. Where is he?" I wasted no time with pointless pleasantries. There was only one way this was going to end. The only question was if they would let slip what I needed to know before the fun started.

"He's waiting for you." The Admisnistratum flunky apparently in charge inclined his head to the Arbiters building.

"In what condition?" I growled.

"He's been enjoying our hospitality for the past few days. You understand, right? We only did what we had to in order to prevent the red harvest." The man's smile sent cold shivers down my spine.

"The red Harvest?" Anteus asked, making them flinch.

"Yes. The soulless ones had risen and only our new patrons can protect us. You're too late to stop it. Just as predicted." The other flunky added. He had a shit eating grin on his face. "We thought that an Inquisitor would made a splendid gift, but you're even better."

"Gift to whom?" I asked in as hard voice as I could manage.

"Our salvation and your doom. The ritual is already in progress. You're too late." The leader beamed at us.

"I want that one alive." Anteus ordered. His warhammer shone with energy as he activated its generator.

I opened myself further to the Warp and drew my weapons. The stench of sheer wrongness and corruption was increasing by the second.

The waiting was over. Before anyone but Anteus could react, I pointed my pistol and shot the expendable Admisnistratum official. In the same time, the Librarian charged forward and did his best to take out the cog-head, who in turn jumped back, revealing that under his robes he had six spideresque metal legs.

Then all hell broke loose.

 **=ATBS=**

 **Part 9**

 **Jenova Town**

 **Deimos Peninsula**

 **Kronus**

Two more shots and the remaining Admisnistratum flunky collapsed on the ground, screaming, with his kneecaps blown off.

That left the Arbiters as immediate threat– all two dozen of them.

Behind me, the platoon opened fire, which was drowned a moment later by the sharp bark of auto canons. With any luck and the Emperor's blessing, they would be able to handle the mob.

The LT and her group were fanning out and joined the Stormtroopers in keeping my rear safe and providing much needed fire support.

That didn't even slow down the heretical Arbiters. They acted like automatons – with stiff, precise movements – the traitors unslung their riot shotguns form their backs and chambered rounds.

At least the maniacs didn't rush us. Instead they simply moved in so they wouldn't shoot their friends. Their actions gave me plenty of time to shoot two of them in the head. The Arbiter's faceplate proved to be insufficient barrier for my laspistol. The front of my targets heads turned into red mist and they crumpled on the ground.

Time moved sluggishly – or at least my enhanced reflexes made me perceive it so. That gave me a great view of the remaining Arbiters as they raised their weapons and aimed them in my general direction. Pickos and her guards were picking them off one after another, yet the death of their buddies didn't faze the rest.

I let my laspistol go and drew as much of the warp's raging energies as I dared. Purple lighting surrounded me like a cloak as I let the excess power bleed of my body. My nerves lit up with pain as they were kissed by that corrupting caress of the warp and I channeled all the energy dancing within and around me through my free hand, using the latter as a guide for its path. I waved in front of me and unleashed a stream of eldritch energy at the remaining Arbiters.

Those of them, who were touched by the raw warp energy had the flesh stripped from their bones within moments and the rest were thrown like rag-dolls from the concussion wave.

I stumbled back as I cut off my attack and dropped the amount of power I was channeling. My lips drew in a bloodthirsty smile as I surveyed my handiwork. At least ten of the bastards were turned into twisted, smoldering skeletons. The remaining Arbiters were dazzled and most of them had lost hold of the riot-shotguns.

I didn't let them recover and charged, holding my trusty chainsword in a two-handed grip. I gave a wordless battle cry and slammed my weapon into a heretic's neck, then pushed down. The adamantium teeth cut through armor, flesh and bone as if it was made of butter, spraying me with blood and gore.

It all felt glorious! The shouts of the men fighting around me were music to my ears. The agonized screams of the dying – it made me laugh as I cut down another heretic. Then there was the warm blood splashed over my face and mouth… it tasted like the best wine I'd ever tried!

I slammed my sword into the gut of an Arbiter, who was just finding his footing and cut him in two, spilling his guts on the ground, when something blasted me off my feet and broke my concentration, making me let go of the Warp. That in turn drove me out of the blood-crazed haze I had fallen in.

I just lay there for a few moments, staring at the blurry figures fighting in front of me. A giant clad in red armor was swinging a warhammer at a mechanical spider, while the machine was responding with laser beams and cutting torches. The former struck the larger combatant again and again, for no visible effect, while the latter were evaded with startling ease.

A familiar bearded face appeared in front of my eyes, cutting the view of the battle.

"Veil! Are you all right?!" Valencia mouthed off and I barely heard him.

Huh. My ears were ringing and I was noticing it just now.

A strong hand grabbed my shoulder and shook me and when that didn't remove the fog drifting through my mind, the Stormrooper slapped me with his armored glove.

That bloody hurt.

"Valencia! The fuck?" I groaned and shook my head.

He pulled me up and I looked around. Ah. Yeah. Fucking heretics were trying to sacrifice us to the Chaos Gods.

Most of those in the immediate vicinity were either dead or busy dying, courtesy to Pickos and her troopers. Only the corrupted cog-head was still standing and he was locked in combat with Anteus.

That wasn't something I wanted to get in between, but we didn't have time to let the Librarian have fun.

"Shoot the cog-head!" I rasped. Damn, my chest hurt like a mule had kicked me in the side.

I glanced down. My carapace armor was dented – no mean feat. Whatever those shotguns were loaded with, it wasn't standard ammo.

I glanced beyond the immediate area. The Guardsmen were pouring all they could into a crowd of crazed people, who were simply stumbling over their dead and coming closer and closer to us. That wasn't helped by the presence of a local PDF squad, who had taken cover behind a nearby statue and was doing their best to suppress the platoon.

Then they vanished in a flash of light as an auto canon hit them with a frag round.

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

I returned my attention to the Astartes just in time to see him catch the traitorous tech-priest in the side with his power weapon. The warhammer's head nearly cut the cyborg in half, before it threw him nearly ten meters away. A moment later, the heretic was followed by a frag grenade, which landed next to his head and blew up, shredding what little flesh he had left.

"Santos, shoot him some more, just in case!" I ordered. The Stormtrooper wasted no time in complying and unleashed a hail of laser bolts at the cyborg, slagging parts of its chassis.

Anteus gave me a curt nod and turned around, then charged at the crowd, which was coming uncomfortably close to the Chimeras, despite the torrent of fire that was scything their ranks. The Librarian enhanced his attack with warp energy and when he hit the heretics, it was unleashed. At least fifteen mangled corpses were sent flying into the air when he hit the crowd. The Astartes waged into the maddened civilians and started smashing through them with his warhammer.

"The left flank!" Pickos shouted, making me tear my eyes from the bloody spectacle. I looked in that direction and winced. Despite the best efforts of the Guardsmen, the heretics were almost in arms-reach of our people.

The LT sprinted that way, followed by her retinue and the Stormtroopers.

I grit my teeth, opened myself to the warp and followed suit.

It was time to paint the ground red.


	5. Chapter 2 Parts 1&2

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Warhammer 40K games, books or movies. They belong to their creators and/or copyright owners. I make no money from this story. It is not for sale or rent.**

 **A Tale of blood and steel**

 **=ATBS=**

 **Chapter 2: Dawn of war**

 **Part 1**

 **Jenova Town**

 **Deimos Peninsula**

 **Kronus**

Before I could start cleaning up all the blood and gore covering me, I found myself picked up as if I was a small child and staring at the glowing eyes of Anteas' helmet. I could feel him probing me through the Warp – no doubt searching for any sign of Chaos taint.

If he found any I was a goner.

Needless to say, that made me damn nervous.

"Huh. You're clean." The Librarian muttered and carefully put me down.

I sighed in relief.

"You sure?" One of the braver or dumber troopers asked aloud.

Anteas turned with dexterity belittling his bulk and stared at the soldier. "No more taint than any Space Marine who faced Chaos up close and personal." The giant rumbled.

"Well, that's a relief. Leftenant, we have an Inquisitor to save. Let's move people!" I paused and glared at the offal covering me. "Where's my damned rag?!"

"Form up! Elen, your squad stays with the Chimeras, the rest with me. Alpha on point." Pickos ordered. "On foot or mounted?" She asked and pointed at the target building.

"Here, sir." Santos gave me the cloak of the man I shot at the start of the current unpleasantries.

"Thanks. That should do." I muttered and started cleaning up. "Foot. APCs will provide cover if needed." I paused. "Belay that!" I shouted a moment later. "Call HQ and have them check about building schematics and defenses – there might be records in the capital. There's no sense to get shredded in the open by sentry turrets or something." I pointed at the Librarian. "He probably can take anything they could dish out, but the lest of us are much squishier."

"That's actually prudent, considering." Anteas rumbled. "A teeny bit better than I would expect from a greener than grass fresh schola graduate anyway. The backup will be down in a few minutes." The Space Marine continued.

"You know, your words do wonders for my self-esteem." I snarked back.

"You've got the guts to talk back to me, don't you?" The smile was clear in his voice. "That however demonstrates a startling lack of brains or at least good judgment. Leftenant, get that small hill scanned." Anteas pointed at the slight rise partially hiding the plaza from the Arbiter's HQ.

"Right away, My Lord!" The LT snapped a salute and started issuing the relevant orders.

"Nasty surprises?" I asked, while trying to remove a piece of, was that a jaw, from my belt.

"If it was me, I would have at least mined this side to ruin the day of anyone who thought the hill would provide good cover."

"Just mines?" I inquired.

I could feel a tiny, very tiny bit of approval radiating from the Astartes.

"Of course not!" Anteas growled. "Sentry turrets, indirect fire, redundant sensor net. It would be best if the hill was simply a cover for a nice adamantite plated bunker chock full with nice toys and murderous bastards."

"Nice image – if they're on our side."

"A bit of fun otherwise." The Librarian nodded sagely. It sounded like it was from personal experience.

Who was I kidding? Of course it was! He was likely hundreds of years old super soldier who had seen campaigns all across the galaxy!

"Any other advice for a newbie like me?" I asked. While we had a bit of quiet, it dawned on me that picking up his brain for ways to keep myself alive might be prudent. That and keeping him between myself and whatever nasty thing tried to eviscerate me the next time.

"We don't have a decade to spare." Anteas deadpanned.

"How did you retain or get a sense of humor?" I asked. I was almost done with mopping up brains and viscera off me. Note to self – try to avoid cutting apart heretics with a chainblade and shoot them instead. Preferably from safe distance. The stench of blood was becoming a bin nauseating.

"Well, most of my brothers think me a bit strange." The Librarian somehow shrugged in his armor in such a way that the suit actually made a half decent facsimile of the gesture. "While they're decent guys, mostly, they tend to be a bit… how to put it? Stiff?" Anteas sighed.

I gave him a weird look. He was nothing like I was taught about the Adeptus Astartes! Oh, he was a superhuman killing machine – something the man amply demonstrated just a few minutes ago. His soul was the grandest one I felt besides the Emperor's, something that put him high above the rest of us mortals. Yet, despite that, right here and now, he felt oddly human and I found that more reassuring than I could properly describe.

"Tips… Let's see… Don't get killed, duh." The Librarian nodded, making me smirk.

"Even I think that's obvious."

"Many don't." Anteas sounded less than pleased with whatever memory my quip brought up. "So don't get killed unless it serves the Emperor and Humanity best in the situation. More importantly, see the latter and don't get your men killed unless it's absolutely necessary to get the job done. The Emperor can use live soldiers better than a bunch of very dead martyrs."

Yep, I definitely liked him. The troopers who could overhear us apparently shared the sentiment – even with my warp senses clamped shut I could feel their spirits rising up a bit as they heard our conversation – something that I'm sure wasn't lost to the Space Marine.

"Let's sum it up – don't die like imbeciles. Consider that a standing order." Anteas continued. "The next simple thing, for dummies like you." A giant, armored hand rested on my shoulder. "Charging Emperor damned heretics like a crazy Khornate berzerker, when you aren't wearing a power armor - like you just did – is a great way to die like an imbecile. So don't do that if there's another way. Like ever, or just spare us all the embarrassment of working with you and get your head blown right away."

"I won't hear the end of this, would I?" I moaned.

"You made not too terrible impersonation of a Khornate cultist. If I wasn't a reasonable man, I would have vented your brains just in case. Or for sport." Anteus spoke in a serious tone that sent shivers down my spine.

The Librarian's head snapped up and he pointed at the dark sky. "They're here."

I looked up and could spot a pair of fast approaching fireballs which appeared to be aiming straight at us.

"They know that there're friendlies in the area, right?" I asked.

"They should." Anteus nodded. "Everyone, kiss the ground!" The Librarian shouted in a voice that reverberated in my bones.

I wasted no time in following his bellowed instruction and dived into the short grass next. A few moments later, the world ended in a bass roar and twin hammer blows that shook me to the impression was reinforced by a rain of smoking debris that started impacting all around us.

The cavalry just arrived and almost killed us in the process. This rescue mission was getting better and better and we were yet to meet the real enemy.

 **=ATBS=**

 **Part 2**

 **Jenova Town**

 **Deimos Peninsula**

 **Kronus**

I got up and shook myself of the loose earth covering me.

"Well, that was a bit close for comfort." I muttered.

"Brother Anteas, orders, sir!" A deep bass voice rumbled from behind me.

I glanced over my shoulder to see eight crimson giants carrying enough weapons to win a battle or two by themselves – standard bolters, a missile launcher, heavy melta and a heavy bolter. Then there were a lot of grenades and other nice stuff that went boom.

Each of them had to be at least two twenty high and that was before they got in the power armor.

They made the rest of us look like little children.

"Brother Sergeant Whent." The Librarian greeted. "Traitors holed in the Arbiter HQ. Unknown defenses, the guard is trying to find us building schematics. The enemy possibly has the Lord Inquisitor still alive somewhere in the building. Purge the traitors and recover him if he's still alive. We'll provide support."

"Affirmitive. Nort, scan the area. Lorne, I want an AP missile ready. Kelso, you're blowing up any obstakles." Whent started issuing orders aloud. "Are you ready?" He turned his attention at me.

"Yes." I answered simply. Raging at eight Astartes after they perhaps not so accidentally got you killed was hazardoust to one's health.

"Good. Follow us and try to keep up. Can we proceed, sir?" Whent asked.

"Move in." Anteas ordered.

That was enough – the Astartes suddenly accelerated faster than a speeding chimera. They were almost a blur as they ascended the hill and charged the Arbiters' HQ.

"What are you waiting for?" I snapped at the guardsmen and drew my sword, hoping that whatever defended our target would be too busy with the marines to shoot at us squishy normal men and women. A moment later I started running after the Astartes.

Anteus shook his head and simply strode beside me, not bothering to even jog. "Whent has always been a bit on the eager side." The Librarian muttered.

"Didn't you just tell me not to charge the enemy in the open?"

"Without proper power armor." Anteas deadpanned. He lit up with purple fire and made a throwing gesture. A forked lighting detached from his armored glove, arched over the advancing space marines and struck a pair of bolter turrets that appeared from the wall of the HQ. The warp attack fried the defensive emplacements before they could even try seeking targets.

Almost in the same instant, the rest of the Astartes opened fire. The deafening sound of bolters firing was almost like a phyiscal blow. The marines obviously had no problem hitting their targets, despite their sprint, because their rounds were tearing apart the Arbiters' defenses before they could properly come online.

I shook my head in disbelief. I knew they were incredible warriors, but this… They were taking out targets that weren't there a split second ago, before I could properly register the emplacements appearing all over the HQ's facade. I was almost sure that this was the case for most guardsmen as well. I knew that I wouldn't be able to react at anything aporaching such reaction speed without a liberal dose of Warp enhancements and even then it was going to be very, very hard to compete with such reaction times.

That really made me _see_ the dangers of my chosen line of work. Because I _knew_ that as great as the Emeror's Angels of Death were, there were many, many enemies that could match them in combat ability. As an initiate in the Ordo Xenos, I was supposed to be hunting a lot of those things too.

Lucky me.

All that ran through my head as I sprinted after the armored titans, hoping to clear the open ground before some enterprising traitor tried to snipe me or something. To make matters worse, right now I didn't feel confident enough to draw on the Warp and enhance myself and thus getting better chances at surviving. After all, there were worse things than dying for the Emperor - like fucking up by the numbers and becoming a daemon's newest toy. With the state of the Warp right now, that latter was too likely for comfort.

Behind me, the platoon crested the hill and charged after us giving various war-cries. I hopped that the mech element would arrive soon too, because the chimeras combining their firepower with the Astartes were almost guaranteed to get us through the killing ground.

They better get in place soon, too. The emplacements were getting online faster and faster and soon there would be more than the marines could take out… or the Angels of Death would reach the building and start storming it, probably leaving the rest of us get torn to shreds.

You got to love the geniuses that issued conflicting orders to the marines and guard.

A turret popped up and it wasn't immediately blown up. It survived long enough to aim and sent a burst at the leading marine before being silenced. Three spears of coherent light harmlessly splashed over his chest plate. Fortunately, it was just a standard las emplacement, instead of another bolter, because even Astartes armor might have failed to a burst of high calibre bolter rounds, especially at that range.

Then the Chimeras finnaly got into position and added their heavy weapons to the onslaught.

Just in time too – the marines reached the heavy doors and one of them pulled a charge from his bakcpack, while the rest took positions to the side. That in turn cut their firing arks, allowing turrets to appear with impunity.

"Odd section, covering fire!" Pickos shouted. A moment later, red beams lanced from behind me and started impacting the HQ.

In the meantime, Anteas moved faster and got between me and the building. I grinned like a loon. His bulk made for a great mobile cover, especially after the waved a hand and summoned a spherical shield made of purple energy.

"Try not to die yet, kid!" The Librarian shouted, then unleashed another lighting strike upon the HQ's defenses.

A flash of light and a sound like ringing gong announced the Astartes taking care of the door. I heard someone screaming in pain from behind but didn't bother looking back and just kept running after Anteas. A few seconds later, the building was towering above us. Turrets were taking pot shots at us, but their ordinance detonated harmlessly upon Anteas' shield. Bursts of heavy bolter fire and grenades was wracking the facade, shattering its murals and taking out emplacement after emplacement. Then the Librarian leaned forward and went through a ragged, glowing hole blasted into the main entrance. I didn't think but dived in after him.

A huge arm dragged me up to my feet.

"You in one piece?" Anteas asked.

I simply nodded, trying to catch my breath.

"Good. Come one, we have an Inquisitor to find."

"What about the guard?" I rasped.

"I sent one squad back to give them cover. I'll have a chat with Whent once we're somewhere secure." The Librarian growled.


	6. Chapter 2 Part 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Warhammer 40K games, books or movies. They belong to their creators and/or copyright owners. I make no money from this story. It is not for sale or rent.**

 **A Tale of blood and steel**

 **=ATBS=**

 **Chapter 2: Dawn of war**

 **=ATBS=**

 **Part 3**

 **Arbiter's HQ**

 **Jenova Town**

 **Kronus**

"You know, I expected that we would have to fight our way through the whole damn building." I muttered.

"That would have been a prudent stalling tactic. Or just blowing us all up." Anteas was a bright ray of sunshine once again.

"That too." I glanced at the plain metal walls surrounding us as we made our way down to the holding cells and interrogation rooms. Whent's squad led the way and so far with the sole exception of two choke points that were protected only by automated defenses we hadn't faced anything of note. "It's too damn quiet."

"I can't sense what's below us. No taint, but…" Anteas trailed off.

I took him at his word. Usually the things that could block a Psyker's warp senses weren't healthy. Or there were more than a few ways to pull it off, but I doubted that we would be lucky enough for this to be one of the nicer options.

"Where are all the arbiters?" Santos, who was shadowing me, asked aloud.

"There should be enough of them to slow us down a bit." Anteas hummed – the sound came out of his helmet strangely distorted, almost eerie.

"No matter where they are, it can't be good for us."

"It never is. Chaos tend to work that way. When they aren't busy screwing each other."

"Too much information." Santos groaned.

The rest of the troopers wisely didn't touch the topic with a ten foot pole, which in itself was surprising. My temporarily bodyguards were a strange bunch.

In front of us, the marines opened fire, before Whent helpfully shouted "Contact!"

The sound of bolters discharging within the building was outright deafening. Within moments, the only thing I could hear was the roar of the weapons. The fact that all I could see was Anteas' power-pack that was attached to his back didn't help matters.

Whatever decided to be shot up by the Astartes, didn't even slow down their progress and a few seconds later we were passing through a door frame. The old fashioned door it belonged to laid twisted in the middle of a large room. By the look of it, it had been tackled and trampled by a space marine.

The poor bastard that had been apparently bracing the door was in even worse condition, though he was mostly intact even if his chest made a good impression of pancake. The other ten or traitorous arbiters strewn all around the room weren't so lucky. They made a great visual aid on the effectiveness of bolter rounds and let's leave it at that.

Did you know that a bolter blowing up your guts makes a worse mess than if you did the same with a chainsword? For some reason part of me was finding the carnage oddly beautiful, while there was another that wanted me to puke everything that I've ever eaten.

Weird.

I shook my head and looked around, trying not to pay attention to the corpses. We were into an interrogation room – a proper one I mean. While there were some interesting devices to help untie ones tongue, there was a lot of gadgets meant to tell if someone was lying. Granted, most of them were rather crudely made and quite old, but if my training was correct, they should have been rather effective despite that.

However, it was clear that the room hadn't been used for its original purpose lately. There were two men and a woman strapped into chairs, who were methodically torn apart. Considering that most if not all of the lie detectors appeared to be trashed and not by the marines, I doubted that the point had been gathering information.

No, the fucking traitors had had their fund with the Inquisitor's retinue. At least one of them, I mentally amended. The closest man still had pieces of his jacket left and while it was soaked with dried blood, a stylized I patch on the shoulder facing me was clearly visible.

"That doesn't bode well for the Lord Inquisitor." Anteas stated.

"Not at all." I nodded and averted my eyes from the torn mess that once was a human face. The man who should have been one of my colleagues had been tortured to death.

"You all have cameras in the helmets recording this, right?" I asked the Librarian.

Somehow, my training came up to the surface, making me look at the situation with professional detachment. I never thought I would be so glad that Sister Joakim's insane training methods, but you can't argue with results. I probably owed her and the rest of my teachers a lot, because I had the sneaking suspicion that if it wasn't for their efforts, I would be either dead or blubbering wreck by now.

"Of course. It's SOP." Anteas nodded.

"Good. I would request copies of this segment at least once we're back. We'll have to confirm if these people were part of Lord Requista's retinue."

"Naturally. Just don't touch the bodies, they might be trapped." The Librarian added.

"I won't. It's not like it would do them any good. They're with the Emperor now." I made the sign of the Aquila at the dead agent and turned my attention to Whent's men. One of the Astartes was busy cutting through a metal door with a power sword. The sound was surprisingly quiet after the last firefight. That or my hearing was shot.

"Agent Veil, we're approaching the command center, however enemy resistance is stiffening. We should take it in five." The Lt's voice came over my vox caster.

Shortly after we got into the HQ, command came through for us and found a loyal arbiter who had served in this building before being returned to the capital. He was able to give us a rough location of our objectives – the command center and detention cells. After that we separated – Pickos went with Whent's second squad to neutralize the building's nerve center, while the rest of us headed towards the dungeon.

"Good. Carry on." I answered.

A solid clang sounded a few seconds later – the sword wielding Astartes kicked the door he had been working on and it a massive piece of it flew down the corridor.

"Paths' open." The Marine declared, sheathed his blade and pulled out a bolter.

"Lead the way, my Lords." I waved at the Astartes.

"Go. We've wasted too much time already." Anteas added.

The marines pointedly ignored me, gave a nod to the Librarian and vanished one after another down the corridor.

A squad of mowed down traitors later, we were carefully descending through a tight stairwell, which was barely able to take the weight of the marines. The comparatively flimsy metal it was made of groaned with every step they made, yet it held.

It was a good thing that we descended two at a time with the rest providing cover or simply staying out of the way, because I doubt that it would have held me too, much less a third Astartes. The damn wait was nerve wracking too – this place had ambush practically written all over it. Even crazed cultists would have recognized it as a prime killing ground… yet no enemy materialized.

No mines, or improvised explosives. No traps.

That didn't bode well at all. At best we were going to find empty cells or just corpses, because I doubted that the traitors were dumb enough to leave a live Inquisitor, no matter their condition, for us to find.

Still, we reached the bottom without incident… if you don't count the fact that the warp simply cut off just behind the door that was now facing us. Even with my psychic senses clamped shut, I could _feel_ a void, an emptiness that made me feel sick.

"We just breached the CP. Casualties acceptable." Pickos announced while the Astartes were preparing to cut through the door.

"Outstanding, Lt. Any idea if you can patch into to building security?"

"One of the Space Marines is working on it."

"I can confirm." Anteas announced. "The door should be opened in a few seconds."

"That's the first good news I got since arriving here."

"So we must be ready for a really bad one." The Librarian added.

Little did we know what was happening right now a few hundred kilometers from here and it was pretty fucking bad.

The door quietly retracted into the floor, revealing an empty guard station.

"Any sight of resistance?" I asked.

Anteas had to order the same info before we got an answer. There were still two short platoons in the building, near the command center, though they were busy making themselves scarce. As far as the cameras and sensors were concerned, there were just a handful of still alive prisoners with us down here.

An icy ball formed in the pit of my stomach. To say that I had a bad feeling would be a charming understatement.

The Astartes led the way and we descended one more level until we reached the cells themselves.

"Sir, you many want to see this." Whent, who led the way spoke.

His squad took a step to the side, allowing us to pass. Whent used his gun to pint at a cell to the right.

"A present for the Corpse-Emperor's servants!" That was written with drying blood on the cell's door.

"Sweep for explosives and then carefully open the door." Anteas ordered. "You squishies better take cover out of the cell block."

"You heard the Lord Librarian!" I snapped and made myself scarce. My shadows didn't need prompting and followed suit.

"It's clear!" Anteas shouted a minute later, in clearly affronted voice.

Obviously he too found the lack of traps and resistance insulting or just a bad omen for the things to come.

Yet another great opportunity to screw us over wasted. The fuck was going on here?!

"You better come here, now, Agent Veil." The Librarian spoke formally.

Fuck. I sprinted down the corridor. That wasn't going to be good. Like at all.

Damn right I was. Halfway there, I could smell the rot and stench of body fluids. The marines, who were gathered around the cell door made me way without prompting this time.

The first thing I saw was Whent, who was actually standing at attention just inside the cell. Next to him, Anteas was on one knee, towering over… My mind refused to comprehend what exactly I was seeing. For a moment I thought that it was a pile of bloody rags used to mop up some bloody mess. I blinked and shook my head.

It… That had once been a man.

Now it was a head with most of its flesh flayed attached to what might have been a human torso at one point.

"Whaa… ooo…szooo...loog..." The mutilated corpse somehow wheezed.

Fuck me with a Baneblade! The poor fucking bastard was somehow still alive.

I gave him a closer look, something that I immediately regretted. Most of his flesh was gone, or black and rotting with infection. The only thing that still kept him alive were the bionic implants I could see _in_ his torso.

"Lord Inquisitor Requista." I stated. It was barely recognizable, but if I squinted right, what was left of the face looked like the picture I got with my orders.

His single remaining bloodshot eye turned in my vague direction. Apparently he had enough left of his mind to recognize his name. That and chiding us for not getting here earlier.

Tough bastard. If I had been through the same and somehow still alive, I knew I would have been driven insane by now.

"I'm Agent Veil, your new initiate." I spoke aloud, hoping that he could hear and understand me.

"Yooo… late..." Requista whispered through missing lips.

"I know." What else could I say?!

"Mmm, people?" He rasped.

I shook my head.

Requista closed his eye and went still for a few moments. I honestly thought that he had passed into the Emperor's light, but then he shook with wet cough and looked back at me.

"Chaoss… rituall…. The peninsual..." His voice was barely a whisper and it was weakening with every word.

"We know." Anteas rumbled quietly. "Our strike cruiser will be taking out the whole area shortly."

"Goo..." Requista gave out a sigh that I chose to interpret as one of relief.

"Sir, the Blood Ravens company deployed here and the Imperial Guard have conflicting orders. There were already skirmishes between the two forces. We need higher authority to stop them from killing each other." I spoke in a loud and clear voice.

Fuck it! The last thing the dying man needed was dealing with this shit! The whole situation, made me furious almost to the point seeing red.

Requista's eye stared at me, as if asking what the fuck could he do about it. I averted my gaze.

"Rrrr… rozz..." The Inquisitors whisper was barely audible.

What was that?

Anteas stood up and looked around. A moment later he knelt next to a pile of offal in the corner and pulled out a blood and gore covered object. He found some kind of rag and hastily cleaned it up, before presenting it to Requista.

The Inquisitor stared in his rosary for a long moment. His mutilated face twisted in something that should have been a smile, but in fact was a vision from hell itself.

A burst of what sounded like binary came from his implants and the rosary in Anteas' paw glowed with soft golden light.

Requista's eye turned and looked at me.

"Veeel..." Requista wheezed. "Aaacc.. iiin… In… siiit… Veeel..." Somehow he managed to give me a firm nod. "Buuun the… eeeretec… prrrge… xeno..." He rasped for a last time. His eye closed and Requista laid still.

I just watched the mutilated corpse. I didn't know the man. I didn't know of him, either – just the fact that he was an Inquisitor and one of the toughest bastards that I was likely to ever meet. Yet… seeing him die here, like that – doing his duty with his dying breath… It changed something.

It made me furious.

 _It gave me a purpose._

I straightened up and made the Aquila with my hands, before giving a deep, respectful bow to the dead inquisitor.

"Brother Sergeant Whent, check the rest of the cells. See if there's anyone still alive in here." I spoke in a voice I didn't recognize.

There was no doubt. No uncertainty. Just a conviction that I wasn't going to fail Requista. I was going to fulfill his last will and cleanse this world from the traitors and xeno polluting it or die trying.

I could do nothing less.

"You heard the Inquisitor." Anteas snapped, letting cold fury lace his voice.

Whent went rigid, but then saluted and got out.

The Librarian turned his attention to me and offered me the rosary.

I carefully closed my gloved hand around it.

"Things like these..." Anteas whispered. "They either make or break a man. I have high expectations of you, Lord Inquisitor."


	7. Chapter 2 Parts 4&5

**AN: This part isn't betaed yet.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Warhammer 40K games, books or movies. They belong to their creators and/or copyright owners.I make no money from this story. It is not for sale or rent.**

 **A Tale of blood and steel**

 **=ATBS=**

 **Chapter 2: Dawn of war**

 **Part 4**

 **Detention Center**

 **Arbiter's HQ**

 **Jenova Town**

 **Kronus**

"No pressure then." I chuckled mirthlessly. "Stop the Adeptus Astartes and the Imperial Guard from killing each other, purge a world from multiple xeno armies, not to forget the apparent Chaos incursion too." I was so much over my head I it wasn't even funny.

"All in a days work, Inquisitor." Anteas spoke solemnly.

"Santos, incendiary grenade. I won't have Requista's body profaned even further." I ordered my bodyguard after leaving the cell.

"Sir." The Stormtrooper spoke quietly and followed my order once Anteas walked out. The soldier threw the grenade in and sealed the door, turning the cell into a crematorium.

"We have a live one, here." One of the Space Marines announced aloud in an uneasy voice.

I frowned. Whatever could gave one of his kind a pause couldn't be a good thing for anyone. I gripped the handle of my sword and walked towards the Astartes. The man was standing next to a cell in the far end of the corridor. His bolter was pointing into it's open door, though he didn't open fire. Whent and another marine interrupted their search and moved in to cover their brother.

I could hear the Stormtroopers taking positions behind me and Anteas' heavy footsteps following me.

What new horror awaited us, I wondered.

I walked past a marine who had taken position to the left of the door and carefully glanced inside. I could see two figures in the twilight. One was a woman – here dead white eyes were staring sightlessly at the door. Her face was a frozen grimace, stretched by gray, taut skin. Another, much smaller figure was clutching the dead woman like a lifeline. A pair of empty green eyes were staring through us looking at only the Emperor knows what. The kid was skin and bones wrapped in a dirty dress that might have been red once upon a time. She was apparently left to starve to death with the corpse of her young mother or older sister.

Still, as fucked up as that was, it didn't explain why the Astartes was feeling uneasy. Undoubtedly he had seen things that were much more fucked up, like what was done to Requista and his people.

Anteas stopped behind me and looked over my head, then he hissed.

"Can someone enlighten me? Is she possessed or something?" I asked warily. My hand clutched the hilt of my chainsword and I prepared for action.

"Can't you feel it?!" The Librarian sounded incredulous.

The hell? Now that I think about it… Yeah, there was no trace of the warp that I could sense. Like it was never there. It was actually soothing. I said so aloud too.

"She's a Pariah." Anteas hissed again.

That gave me pause. As a Psyker, her very presence should be screaming kill me now, getting worse the closer the kid was. Instead, there was nothing.

"Are you sure?" I frowned. "I feel nothing that suggest she's a Pariah or a blank, though I haven't been close to one before."

"Very sure." Anteas growled and took a step back. I'm sure that I heard a sigh of relief coming from him.

"That's weird." I shrugged. "But potentially useful with Chaos and Eldar around."

"You want to use her?" The Librarian asked.

"Well, I'm certainly not leaving her here since she's not possessed or otherwise corrupted. Though a medical scan for nasty surprises will be in order I think. You're sure she's not a deamonhost or something?"

"Very. I've been close to blanks and a Pariah before. The feeling's unmistakable. How in the Emperor's name can you stand being so close to her?" Anteas exclaimed.

"No idea. I'm weird like that." I shrugged. "Hi there." I smiled and waved at the kid, who didn't react like at all. Damn it, I wasn't a therapist or something. The little training I got for similar situations was going to be counter-productive in this case I thought.

"Santos. A ration bar and canteen. Call Pickos to have a female trooper waiting us at the entrance, our new friend might react better to a woman."

Trying to get the girl out of her funk with offer of food and water didn't work. She simply wasn't here and didn't really react when I carefully pulled the corpse of her relative from her hands and picked her up.

Totally catatonic or whatever the scientific term was.

I growled. Just another life destroyed by the damn traitors. As if I needed another reason to burn them all.

 **=ATBS=**

Soon enough we were back at the entrance, after pausing for a few moments to burn the bodies of Requista's team too. We faced no resistance – the remaining traitorous Arbiters were either busy running or got ran down by the guardsmen and Astartes squad working with them.

"What's the plan, Lord Inquisitor?" Anteas asked after I handed the girl to a short, grizzled corporal, who rushed her out towards the waiting Chimeras. "You thought what you're going to do, I hope." Anteas appeared next to me.

"Go back to the capital and put and end to this damn mess. We have enough problems without trying to kill each other too." I dearly hopped that Captain Thule was going to recognize my new authority and rein in his Astartes. We had whole armies of xeno to deal with – fighting among ourselves was going to doom us and every human on Kronus.

"Good, good." The Librarian muttered.

"Do you think Thule will challenge your Chapter Master's orders on my say so?" I asked.

Anteas was silent for a long moment. "I believe so. However, there are some of my brothers that would be mightily displeased by such a turn of events."

"How displeased?"

"That remains to be seen. I..." Anteas trailed off. The Astartes, who was standing just beyond the effective boundary of the girl's disruption effect stiffened. His head snapped up towards the plateau above the town.

"By the Emperor…" The Librarian whispered.

Turned around and stared. The sky was tearing apart as huge wisps of purple energy were rising from somewhere behind the horizon. Lances of blinding light descended from the heavens – likely the Space Marine's strike cruiser unleashing its weapons on the far side of the peninsula.

I had the sinking feeling that it was going to be too little too late.

The ground shook under our feet. A warm, wet wind started blowing in our faces. It carried a fain smell of decay.

I felt a fain pressure in my head but it was a distant thing, that was failed to find a purchase. I shuddered and took a step towards the Chimera with the kid we retrieved. The pressure suddenly vanished and I let out a sigh of relief. Whatever it was, it wasn't good for my health, I knew that much.

"We need to leave. Now." Anteas rasped. He stumbled towards the waiting Chimeras and straightened up once he got closer. "I've never been a witness to a Warp Storm being born." The Librarian groaned.

Above us, the tendrils of Warp energy continued to race towards space.

"Leftenant! We need to get the fuck out of here yesterday! Make your way to the Chimeras on the double and don't stop for anything! Move it!" I shouted in my vox.

"Affirmative! What's the situation? We're feeling something weird."

"A warp storm and something that looks like Chaos incursion."

"Shit. We're pulling out, now." The LT informed me.

"Sergeant, defensive positions, be ready for anything." I ordered the NCO left to oversee our ride back home.

"Yes, sir." The aging man said and started shouting orders.

"What are the odd that we'll be able to pull out without incident?" I asked Anteas.

The Librarian didn't answer and instead just starred at the boiling mass of warp energy that was starting to gather in high orbit.

 **=ATBS=**

 **Part 5**

 **Arbiter's HQ**

 **Jenova Town**

 **Kronus**

It took five nerve wracking minutes for the rest of the platoon and Whent's marines to reach us. The news from orbit weren't good – the growing Warpstorm was threatening to cut us off from reinforcements if it didn't "stabilize" soon. Even worse, the captain of the Strike Cruiser told Anteas that the orbital strike appeared to be unsuccessful. Before warp derived disturbances blanketed their sensors with static and other, less pleasant things, the Astarte's in orbit saw a Chaos Gate forming and a lot of traitor forces pouring through.

We had elements of a traitor legion on site, which meant that unless we all cleaned up our act, we were dead… if we were lucky.

My job just got that much more important and I still had no real idea how to do it besides rely on my new-found authority and pray to the Emperor that it would be enough… I spent the last few minutes trying to plan a course of action that wasn't going to needlessly get people killed and reached the predictable conclusion that I simply lacked the experience to do so. I was supposed to be training how to be a proper little Inquisitorial agent, not the real thing, damn it!

Predictably, we didn't get out without accident – it was that kind of day. Pickos just emerged from the main entrance, followed by her soldiers, more than a few of whom were carrying wounded, when I could feel static electricity building in the air. A loud whining followed by a snap-crack and a flash of light erupted from the edge of the null field surrounding the Chimeras. Chunks of steaming meat and glowing armor exploded outwards and started raining all over the plaza.

A dozen or so rapid flashes followed, deploying huge men randomly just beyond the null field. Most of them wore furs and leathers, though that didn't make their wicked chain swords and axes any less lethal. The small warband was led by a pair of even larger traitor marines, who were armored from head to toe and carrying very large guns.

I stared at the madmen who risked teleporting while a warp storm was being born. For a moment, they were surrounded by a corona of dissipating warp energy, which almost immediately discharged into the surrounding area. My training kicked in just as they gave bloodcurdling war-cries and charged us with no care for their own well-being.

Our Astartes were already reacting – aiming at the madmen. However, they concentrated on the major threat – the traitor marines, which gave a chance to the berserkers to close in.

I drew my weapons and opened fire at the closest madmen. The Chimera next to me was lucky – it's gunner was pointing a heavy bolter in the general direction of the enemy and immediately opened up, blowing a pair of heretics into bloody gore. Anteas, who was under the null field, wasted no time and charged a nearby maniac, who was wielding a pair of chain-axes, while the rest of the marines were busy riddling their traitorous brethren with bolter shells.

We would have emerged from this ill timed attack mostly unscratched, if it wasn't for one nasty fact – four of the madmen appeared almost on top of Pickos and her people. The guardsmen wasted no time in opening fire, however they managed to down only two berserkers, before the rest were within melee range and started swinging. I saw that from the corner of my eye and then I was too busy to pay any more attention to anything but giant barreling towards me.

I shot him twice in the chest, which only ignited the furs he was wearing, revealing that he had some kind of armor underneath. My shots only pissed him off - he roared and swung a huge, two-handed axe at me, intent on splitting me in two. I jumped aside in the last moment, feeling the displaced air as the mighty cleave passed a few centimeters from my left shoulder. I wasted no time and retaliated with an ill aimed swipe.

The man moved with a surprising agility and almost got out of range. The adamantine teeth of my blade caught his biceps and tore through the muscle, leaving an ugly gash in his left hand. That didn't slow him down in the slightest. He roared in rage and pain, and swung his axe again, as if it was a child's toy instead of a huge weapon that had to weight at least twenty kilograms.

All I could do was to jump back and pray. The swipe did miss me, but it caught the side of my sword and tore it from my hand. I spat a curse and backpedaled. I raised my laspistol and started shooting at the man's head…

I missed as he gave me an ugly smile and charged straight at me.

I stumbled at something and fell on my ass, which left me an easy target. I had just enough time to take a hasty shot and curse my luck, before the madman was towering above me. Then his bloodthirsty grin and the head it was attached to were replaced by pink steam. The headless corpse swung on its feet for couple of seconds, then it started slowly toppling towards me.

"Fuck my luck!" I hissed and rolled away.

"You all right, sir?" Santos was next to me a moment later, offering me a hand.

"Thanks." I muttered. Good fellas, saving my life like that. I think I was going to keep them.

I looked around. The enemy done in, though we didn't emerge unscratched. The first casualty I saw was one of the Astartes. His left arm hanged useless and the arm was missing everything below the elbow. Fuck. Those traitors managed at least on shot more or less on target even when two squads were busy emptying their bolters in them. I was suddenly very glad that I wasn't faced with a real traitor marine and had to content with just an initiate at worst… and he almost took my head too, the wanker.

I shuddered at the thought of how close to dying I got.

"Emperor damned heretics..." I muttered and looked back at where Pickos was. "Fuck."

The LT was all right, though I couldn't say the same for her people. Those bastards that hit them apparently managed to cut down at least half a dozen guardsmen before being shot to pieces – almost literally – the maniacs had so many cauterized holes in them that it was a miracle that they were more or less in one piece.

"Get the wounded on the Chimeras and lets move on before they hit us again!" I ordered.

The poor bastards gutted by those heretics weren't among the wounded – the chain weapons had killed everyone they hit.

I hoped that this was just a raid of opportunity or something, because otherwise we may not make it back. If we were hit by a dozen traitor marines instead, most of us would be gone – I had no doubt about that.

The only good news was that we got a few minutes to load everyone, with the Astartes taking a ride on the roofs, then left without being attacked again. The Emperor only knew if we could make it to friendly held territory without being hit again.


	8. Chapter 2 Part 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Warhammer 40K games, books or movies. They belong to their creators and/or copyright owners. I make no money from this story. It is not for sale or rent.**

 **A Tale of blood and steel**

 **=ATBS=**

 **Chapter 2: Dawn of war**

 **Part 6**

 **Six Hours later**

 **Imperial Guard column**

 **En Route to Victory Bay**

"Multiple contacts, six o'clock." One of Whent's marines spoke in the platoon's general vox net.

"Confirmed. Aircars and bikes. Approaching fast."

From the direction of Jenova and the Chaos incursionthat infested the peninsula. At least they weren't in position to cut off our way. Not yet.

"Of course it wouldn't be that easy." I grumbled. "Get us moving as fast as practical, check if someone is free to provide some air-support and prepare for battle." I spoke in my vox, trying very hard to keep the resignation out of my voice. There was a small part of me that hoped that we would get back without incident.

I should have known better.

"Camera feeds?" I asked the driver – a young corporal called Oren.

Surprisingly, the IG regiment sent to pacify Kronus was equipped with top of the line kit, including some impressive networking compared to what most of the guard had to work with. That included cameras in all vehicles and automated turrets on most Chimeras - sparing a soldier the need to expose themselves to use the heavy weapon mounted on top.

There were only two such machines attached to the platoon and on the scramble to get away from Jenova, I didn't end in one of them. At least the LT and the stray I picked up were a bit safer than the rest of us.

On the bright side, there were still cameras on my ride, allowing me to see what was approaching once I went next to the driver.

Behind us, there was a small cloud of vehicles – aircars, bikes and even two buses of all things. It was no surprise that they were able to overtake us. While the Chimeras were fast for tracked APCs, they had nothing on civilian skimmers that didn't need to mount much in the way of armor - just enough to maybe keep a rich idiot alive if they crashed into something.

The big question was what they were armed with, because a few decent missile launchers could easily ruin our day.

"They're in range. Engaging." A marine announced over the vox an instant before I could hear bolters opening up.

Single shots, aimed fire.

The enemy was still kilometers away, practically far beyond small arms effective range… against human sized targets. Apparently for Space Marines with all their enhancements and whatever help their armor could provide, that wasn't true. They were followed by our heavy weapons speaking moments later.

Just a few seconds after the Astartes opened fire, an aircar fell out of formation, then crashed near the road. Despite what a movie might imply, the expected fireball didn't materialize, so the promethium tank survived the impact.

A biker lost his head next and his ride slammed into the back of a red aircar. This time, we were rewarded with a nice blue tinted explosion as the two vehicles immolated themselves. The ensuring blast-wave and shrapnel scattered the nearby traitors and even downed a few aircars.

The swarm spread out and continued to approach undeterred by the losses. The cameras caught dull flashes appearing all around the enemy machines as their occupants started firing wildly our way.

At this range, they had to be very lucky to hit anything, yet given the amount of ordinance coming our way, they were bound to… A dull clang announced some kind of round ricocheting from the side of our Chimera.

Yep, even fucking traitors spraying and praying could get lucky.

A few seconds later, our gunner let lose a long burst of bolter fire. The heavy round flew true and ripped open one of the closest aircars, splattering its occupants in the process. Auto-cannons, grenades and heavy bolters were taking their toll upon the approaching swarm.

A saner opponent would have broken off given the death toll that our heavy weapons and marines were inflicting. Yet, those were Chaos aligned traitors – sanity was something that other people did.

Hell, a lot of them probably were glad to die for whatever foul thing they worshiped.

The worst thing was, that I was a spectator. There were no orders to give. No way to actively fight right now. Oh, we could stop, dismount and give the bastards a good fight. However, that might allow for something actually nasty to catch up and there was still no word on air-support. Besides, doing so would make us easier targets for ramming.

It took them couple of minutes to get close enough that their wild fire started hitting our rides at regular intervals. The Astartes didn't seem to mind – stubbers and las-guns weren't a big threat for their armor. However, the same couldn't be said about our gunners.

"Eli's down!" Someone shouted over the vox.

"Pull her down and take the gun. Medic!" Pickos ordered.

About two thirds of the swarm was down when they were about to overtake us. The marines and gunners did a great job, but there were simply too many of the bastards to take out with our firepower.

Not before they reached us at least.

"Get off the road and evasive!" I snapped. I really didn't like the way the leading bastards were angling their vehicles towards us and considering that their shooting was really just an inconvenience…

"My EYES!" Our gunner screamed and the roar of his bolter ceased.

"Help me pull him down!" I snapped and stopped watching the battle.

I just had to think that, didn't I? I should have known better.

A pair of guardsmen rushed to my aid and within seconds, we had the poor bastards back inside the vehicle. We laid him on the floor and the two men who helped me started pulling out med-packs. I glanced at the rest of the troopers with us. All were injured to one extent or another, though most were walking wounded.

Fuck it. I hated being useless anyway.

I pushed my shoulders through the gunner's hatch and took a hold of the bolter just as our driver made a sharp turn, making me slam my ribs on a sharp edge. Fortunately, my armor blunted most of the impact, leaving me with only a nasty bruise.

I took a moment to get my bearings and make sure that I didn't accidentally shoot one of the marines riding on the ceiling.

What I saw was pure chaos, pun intended. There were bikes and aircars doing their best to ram our wildly evading Chimeras, while others flew close in to provide covering fire. Others instead were doing their best to board us… which was sheer insanity considering that we had a pair of Astartes on top of each APC.

"In the Emperor's name, DIE!" I heard Anteas' voice rise from nearby and glanced to the left.

The Librarian was driving his bike with one hand, while shooting over his shoulder with the other. Somehow he wasn't crashing even though he was unable to use his psyker powers to help find a safe route.

He was hitting things too – I saw him rip through a bike that flew next to the Chimera behind us. Bolter rounds blew apart the chest of it'sleather clad driver, while his buddy – a naked woman – was jumping to on the Chimera. The bike flew out ofcontrol a moment before the heretic could properly leap and she bounced form the side skirt of the APC, then harmlessly blew up behind the speeding armored vehicles.

"Beware, suicide-bombers!" I shouted in my vox. That image made me stop gawking at the insanity surrounding me and I gripped the heavy bolter. It took me a moment to line up a target – an aircar that was diving at the Chimera behind us – and opened fire. My first burst wenthigh – just a round or two clipped the trunk, doing no real damage. I cursed while correcting my aim and let lose. Heavy rounds stitched through the middle of the diving car and detonated, tearing it in two. The front slammed into the road behind us and crumbled like a tin-can under tank treads, while the back blew up spectacularly a moment after slamming into a tree.

That was fucking awesome!

A well aimed burst pinged from the armor around my bolter. I tried to make myself as small target as possible all the while doing my best to fend off the maniacs.

Despite our best efforts, they just kept coming. I saw a pair of cultists jumping on top of a Chimera that had to slow down to avoid a ditch. The marines on top trivially threw the bastards away, before they exploded in a shower of gore. An aircar slammed in the back of the last APC, only to crumble when whatever it was made of was found lacking compared to the armor.

Then one of the buses was almost on top of us. The madman driving turned it to the side, somehow making the vehicle drift in mid-air. For a heartbeat I thought that the driver fucked up, but then the side aligned with our Chimera, revealing at least twenty people with guns pointing our way.

"FUCK!" I shouted and let lose, emptying the belt into the bus. The marines did the same, burning through what was left in their magazines in moments.

Our combined fire ripped the bus open – spilling people and pieces of people on the ground. Yet, the Emperor damned cultists didn't care and opened fire with everything they got. Slugs and las-bolts slammed into the top of our Chimera, either bouncing off or heating the armor. The marines simply shrugged the fire and reloaded, though the one to my right firstpulled out a grenade and threw it in the bus, which was threatening to roll in the air and fall on the last APC.

The driver of the rearguard Chimera made the engine scream and somehow squeezed off just a bit more speed. The grenade flew in the bus, landing just behind the driver and blew up, simply disintegrating the front third of the machine. The rest spun out of control and slammed into a patch of threes beside the road, where it flew apart.

"I need ammo!" I shouted to the troopers below me as I did my best to detach the empty belt.

Let me tell you, reloading a heavy bolter on top of Chimera busy evading kamikazes was pure brass platted bitch. One cursed by the Emperor himself to boot.

Having fucking cultists trying to blow my head off didn't help either.

At least the marines next to me didn't arrange an accident that would have left Thule free to take out the Imperial Guardtoo.

I was finally able to reload and take a note of what the hell was happening around us, when the never sufficiently damned cultists got lucky. The second bus, which had been hanging back, accelerated behind a wall made of the most remaining aircars. It chose the time well, because apparently all our heavy weapons ran out of ammo in just about the same time – which was a pure fuck up on our side.

The marines did their best as well as the few guardsmen who had clear fire lanes from the firing ports in the Chimeras. I opened fire too, ripping a pair of aircars to pieces.

It wasn't enough. We took downabout two thirds of the remaining cars, when the bus drove through two of its buddies, literally slamming them out of the air. I'm sure I saw at least two marines shredding the driver, making the machine lose control, but it was too late. It slammed in the back of the last Chimera, though at least the Astartes ridding that APC managed to jump out just in time.

The impact tore apart the bus, howeverthe damage was done. The Chimera was sent skidding into a low boulder. It hit hard, atthe wrong angle and the whole APC went airborne for a few seconds before slamming into the ground and rolling a few times until it laid resting on its ceiling.

"We lost a Chimera! Circle around and prepare to dismount!" I ordered and opened fire at the remaining traitors.

"Belay that! Continue driving towards Victory bay!" Pickos shouted, giving me pause.

She knew better than to disobey an Inquisitor and she didn't strike me as a woman who would just leave eight of her people behind.

"Leftenant, explain yourself!" I growled in the vox.

"I just got word from HQ. Enemy bombers are vectoring on our position. The General sent interceptors our way but they won't reach us in time unless we keep driving!"

I glared at the traitors. What little aircars they had remaining were breaking off and heading towards the crashed Chimera, just as the pair of dismounted Astartes did.

We were in the open, with no cover to speak of in sight. If a bomber or two caught us here, we were toast.

"You heard the LT. Once the CAP is in place, we're coming back." I growled in the vox, though I didn't really believe it.

Somehow, I had trouble believing that we would find anything but corpses… if we could get back in the first place.


End file.
